The City Is at War
by Angelfly06
Summary: The City of Element is a divided city. The people from different territories aren't allowed to interact with each other...until now. Better explanation inside. Rated T for swearing, violence and abuse. Modern AU
1. Chapter 1

The City of Element is a city made up of very diverse cultures, cultures that don't exactly get along very well with one another. They never have but they also have somehow managed to co-exist to form a functioning city. The city itself is divided into four or five parts, whichever way you fancy to look at it.

There are the sister Northern and Southern Districts, the area is split thus the argument on whether or not the city is divided into four or five parts. The people who live here are made up mostly of doctors and police officers. The Northern District isn't a real bad place to live, a nice suburban area, and neither is the Southern, but years ago a huge gang fight destroyed most of the Southern District leaving the remains of the area up for construction.

Then you have the Terra subdivisions, made up mostly of middle-class besides the Bei Fong estate. A farm also rests on the outskirts of this part of town, but other than that nothing too exciting exists in the subdivisons. If you ask any teenager who lives there they would tell you it's almost dull to live here. With the exception of crime that takes place from time to time.

Next you have the Central urban area with it's lofts and skyscrapers. This is a relatively quiet area that is made up mostly of the new age hippees who are all about peace and all that good stuff...okay maybe not that extreme but you get the idea. The Central area is rather small so not many people live up there.

Finally you have the uptown Ember Estates, only the richest and most twisted live here in the huge mansions that have way too many rooms passed the level of necessity. Here everyone drives a Lexus, Jaguar or some other fancy sort of car. Because of the large amounts of money the people who live here make, long ago those people decided they would be the ones in charge of the city. Remember that gang fight that destroyed the Southern District? The Ember Estates is home to some of the most infamous gangs in all of Element.

It has been an unspoken rule for about a century that the sections of the city don't mix with one another. That is except for the large private school, Element Private Academy. There students from all parts of the city can interact with each other but thats the only simply because of sports and clubs and things like that. Outside interaction though is forbidden, but enough of the history lesson now I'll tell you about a group of very special, very revolutionary kids.

* * *

It was a Friday at Element Private Academy, most kids had already gone home but Azula Sozin had soccer practice after school. Azula was the daughter of the biggest name in the corporate scene, Ozai Sozin. She had inherited her father's cut-throat sense of competition and it showed best when she was out on the field. She was a ruthless player even to her own team as they scrimmaged. At the moment she had the ball and dodged around a few of the girls managing to kick a couple in the shin and scored the winning goal. Though it was just a scrimmage, Azula smirked proudly.

"Nice work Sozin but next time try not to break your team mates legs, we need them in the game too," her elderly coach Li told her as she grabbed her bad and started walking back to the school.

The girl laughed, "Oh I'm just practicing my defense Coach Li, surely there's nothing wrong with that is there?" Azula said it with a voice that sounded sweet and sugary but underneath the tone was a kniving, manipulative mind at work. Her coach just nodded in agreement and Azula made her way back into school to go find her friends Mai Kwan and Ty Lee Chang.

Azula walked in through the glass doors that led to the gymnasium where volleyball practice was being held, she recieved a few glares from some of the braver girls but they quickly turned their heads as soon as she looked at them and smirked back. Azula had a reputation as Queen Bitch of the school and had the nasty remarks to prove it, but no cat fight scars Azula was more of the verbal fighter and most of her competitors backed down before things got physical. Azula was damn proud of her reputation too.

She walked into the combat room next to the gym where Mai was practicing her fencing just in time to see her friend take down Chan Maaka, Azula's ex-boyfriend. Mai was swift with her final move, Chan never saw her coming he was too distracted while looking at Azula so Mai proceeded to knock his sword out his hand beating the boy for about the fifth time that day. Mai lifted up her mask and said in a monotone voice, "Are you really second best in our school, because really you're getting predictable and that bores me." Chan didn't answer but grumbled as he got to his feet and walked off to the boy's locker room.

Mai turned to look at Azula, she gave the girl an annoyed look and said, "I hate that guy, he's so cocky but there's nothing to back up what he says about himself."

"Hmph, that's not the only area in which he's all talk, "The two girls walked into the locker rooms and got changed out of their dirty, sweaty clothes and into some more comfortable ones before they walked out again.

They entered the combat room which was still empty Azula checked her black EnV phone, Ty Lee was late. "When is Ty Lee supposed to be finished? I told her to meet us after her practice straight away and not to waste time."

Mai shrugged, "You know Ty Lee, she's probably still flirting with a new possible boyfriend for the week." Azula laughed as a brown-haired girl in a red cheerleading uniform bounced into the room with a smile on her face, "Hey guys, are you two done killing your teammates or can we leave? What's so funny?" Her gray eyes darting between the two older girls, Mai was a Junior, and Azula and Ty Lee were Sophomores.

"Oh nothing, just gossip about some girl. We're ready to go, did you two bring nice clothes? We're going to Dante's tonight and I don't want to be seen with you in your usual frocks," Azula said condescendingly as she lead the other two out of the gym and towards the parking lot.

Ty Lee squealed, "I just went shopping yesterday and got the sexiest outfit, definetley not a frock!"

Mai groaned as she put her dark sunglasses over her eyes, "Come on Azula, do we have to? We go there every week and everytime it's filled with the same stupid people."

Dante's was the only under age twenty one night club in Element, it was a good place because it literally played everything from Run-DMC to Good Charlotte, and no techno. Only thing was not everyone got to experience it, it was clearly in Ember Estates territory so no one from the other sections got to enjoy the place.

"Yes we have to, you two need the reputation points and besides my father owns the place so we get in for free. What else would you do? Stare at Zuko all evening? Honestly I don't know why you're so gaga over him.," Azula taunted as she threw her bag into the trunk of her car. Mai said nothing but slid into the passenger front seat and started flipping through Azula's CD's not finding any that she deemed worthy of being played.

"Yeah Mai don't be a party pooper, it'll be lots of fun! We can flirt with boys and dance," Ty Lee said from the back while texting someone on her cell phone.

Mai turned her head to the back of the car and pulled off her shaded sunglasses, "I don't dance and I don't flirt. I'll go but I'll just drink stupid non-alcoholic drinks all night." With that Mai turned back to face forward and put her sunglasses back on, while she wasn't looking Ty Lee stuck her tongue out at her and proceeded to text people.

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence until they pulled up to the Sozin's family mansion, save for the radio station Azula had turned to that was now blasting through the car. They stopped at the cast iron gates and waited for Azula to punch in the unlocking code. The Sozin's mansion was possibly the biggest one in Ember Estates, it was made entirely out of red bricks and had a multiple car garage. On the outside, there was a large swimming pool though no one really used it except for Azula when she tried to tan outside, a tennis court, and a few gardens that no one went in anymore, not since Azula's mom left.

The girls walked into the house through the garage and into the master kitchen. All the equiptment in the house was state-of-the-art, Azula walked over to the sub-zero refridgerator and pulled out three water bottles and handed them to her friends as they sat around the island. Ty Lee had dropped her back pack on the kitchen floor and Mai was sitting with her feet propped up on top of the island. Mai and Ty Lee spent almost every weekend at Azula's home so they felt pretty at home.

Azula noticed something taped to the fridge, a note. It was in Zuko's messy handwriting, Azula had briefly wondered why his black Jaguar was not in the garage when she pulled in but only briefly. Azula read the note out loud, "'Not that anyone cares but I'm hanging out with Lu Ten and we'll be at Dante's later tonight. Just in case you were wondering, Zuko.' Ha, yeah you're right about that ZuZu, no one cares."

Ty Lee who was now painting her nails a hot pink said, "Well that's not entirely true, right Mai?"

Mai had her iPod in so she didn't hear the younger girl's remark. Azula moved and ripped one of Mai's earphones out,"Mai take your sunglasses off, you're inside for God's sake." Mai scowled but did what Azula said.

Azula stretched, "Ugh, I'm going to go take a shower before we go. You two do whatever you have to do to get ready." Azula waved her hand dismissively as she walked away.

Ty Lee still doing her nails called after her, "Is your dad coming home tonight?"

Azula stopped in her tracks and turned around and raised an eyebrow, "Does he ever spend the weekends here?" Ty Lee shook her head in response.

Azula turned on her heel and walked through the living room, past the giant flat screen plasma tv, and pictures on the wall. She stopped, there were no pictures of her mother left on the walls, not a single shred of proof that Ursa Sozin ever lived here. She shook her head and then proceeded up the grand staircase to the third floor where her shower was. As she stepped into the warm water she thought. Azula didn't know whether or not she missed her mother, she knew enough about herself to say that she wasn't a nice person, but she wondered if not missing Ursa made her even less nice.

* * *

Azula walked back down the staircase dressed in a deep scarlet halter dress with black stilletto heels and a black clutch purse. She walked back into the kitchen to see Mai and Ty Lee sitting at the island fully dressed and eating Chinese food.

Mai wore a black strapless dress with a red shrug over it as picked at her orange chicken with her chopsticks. Ty Lee also wore a strapless dress but hers hot pink and matched her nails and she wore pink sparkly heels. Azula folded her arms over her chest and tapped her foot, "Are you two done pigging out? It's nearly nine o'clock, let's go!"

Ty Lee hopped up from her seat but Mai had her iPod in once again and didn't hear her friend's command. Azula rolled her eyes and once again ripped Mai's earphones out, she then repeated herself, "Let's go!" With that, the three girls made their way out of kitchen and drove to Dante's. Little did they know of the events that were about to take place.

* * *

Dante's was packed as it usually was on a Friday night, the song 'Ghost Town' by Shiny Toy Guns was blaring and bodies were jumping up and down to the chorus and the teens sang along. Azula and Mai sat at the bar drinking virgin appletinis while Ty Lee was out dancing with Ronjon, her third suitor of the night. Azula stared almost enviously at her bubbly friend.

"How do you suppose she gets all those guys to follow her around all the time," Azula asked but before Mai could answer, another voice did.

"Gee I don't know, maybe because she doesn't scare them all away," her cousin Lu Ten stood smirking behind her, Zuko sulking beside him looking utterly bored. Lu Ten was a college sophmore but lived at home with Zuko and Azula's uncle Iroh. He looked an awful lot like her brother, minus the scar Zuko had recieved some years ago. Lu Ten also had a happier, more outgoing personality.

Azula groaned, "Why are you here? Don't you have anything better to do?" Lu Ten sat and spun around on the barstool.

"Well princess my dad's still a Sozin so I get in for free too, and all the good parties don't start until after eleven. 'Sides, me and Zuko won't be here for long. We'll be out of your shiny hair in no time," Lu Ten said. The older boy never gave into Azula, he wasn't afraid of her like every one else and that annoyed Azula.

Azula got down from her stool and walked over to her brother and looked him in his eyes, "Just where are you two going?"

"Nowhere you're going," Zuko replied, his face emotionless.

"Aw ZuZu that's no fair," Azula pouted but before she could argue anymore, something caught her eye. A flash of a blue skirt. She turned and saw that in the middle of the dance floor, a group of kids from the Southern and Northern Districts had arrived and were dancing. They also had the attention of the crowd. Azula looked at her brother who gave her a look that said 'Don't do it.' Azula ignored him and walked toward the center of attention. A hip hop song was playing now and the District kids were doing some sort of syncronized dance to it. The one who was the main dancer at the moment Azula recognized as Katara Kuruk from her Biology class. Yue La Tui was also dancing in the crowd along with some other District boys and girls.

'What are they doing here? They have no right to be here.' Azula signaled for her two companions to follow her, Ty Lee obeyed but Mai stayed behind at the bar. Azula walked right up to Katara who had just finished the dance, a few cheers echoed throughout the room but only a few. Katara ignored them and walked up to meet Azula with her arms folded across her chest.

"What are you doing here Kuruk?" Azula snapped.

Katara smiled and Yue appeared behind her, it was Yue who would speak first, "We don't want any trouble Azula, just came here to dance." Yue was older than Azula, she was also a Junior along with Zuko and Mai but that didn't stop Azula at talking back to her.

"I don't believe I was speaking to you Yue," Azula said harshly, "Now answer the question Kuruk."

"It's a free country isn't it? Like Yue said, we just came here to dance," Katara said sweetly, "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go back to what I was doing."

Azula was angered by this, no one ever stood up to her like that, "It may be a free country but my father owns the place, so I say who can stay and who can go. Now why don't you District kids run back off to the alleys where you belong before I call security."

Katara's smile disappeared and was about to make a comeback, but a tan hand appeared on her shoulder. It belonged to Katara's older brother Sokka, he was normally a goofy kid but at the moment his face was serious, "Come on Katara lets go, who wants to stay at this dump anyway." He started to lead his sister and the others out of the room, Katara glared at Azula who just waved and smiled.

Once they were gone Azula made her way back to the bar where Zuko was scowling, "Why did you do that? They weren't harming anyone."

Azula took a sip from her appletini and said, "It's not their place to be here and I simply reminded them of that. They belong on the District streets and we belong here, that's the way it goes."

Zuko glared at his sister and Mai's eyes darted between the two. Azula stretched and jumped off of her stool once again, "You know what? I can't stand the smell those District kids have left behind, they've ruined my evening. Oh well, time to go I guess. Mai, Ty Lee we're leaving." Zuko looked at Azula in disbelief and Lu Ten muttered something that sounded like 'Bitch'.

Mai silently stood up from her spot and Ty Lee sprang away from the boy she was talking to and followed Azula out of the club. Lu Ten shook his head slowly, "That sister of yours is a real piece of work." Zuko remained silent as he watched the trio exit.

* * *

Azula pulled into a gas station that was on the border between territories to fill up when she saw who else was there, Sokka Kuruk's old silver Buick that was starting to rust. Azula formed an evil idea, this gas station didn't have any security cameras and the attendant had his face buried in a magazine, so no one could prove who did the damage either.

She tapped on the window of her car to get her friends attention, she then signaled for them to come outside. Once they were out she pointed at the rusty car, "Mai get your pocket knife out." Mai dug through her purse and pulled out a small blade, walked over to the car and dug the blade into the side of the car, Azula looked at Ty Lee and pointed at the head lights. Ty Lee got the message and walked to the front of the car and using her stilletto heel, smashed the first head light in and proceeded to do the next one.

Azula then went to the gas pumps and pulled one out, she also took out a lighter she had in her purse that she carried around for situations like these. Mai and Ty Lee froze and guessed what Azula was up to. Ty Lee was first to speak, "Come on Azula, don't be extreme."

"You could burn down the whole street, maybe even kill someone," Mai said trying to reason with her. Azula ignored the two and continued to pour gasoline onto the car. Mai and Ty Lee glanced at eachother, their leader had that crazy glint in her eye. Mai grabbed Azula by her shoulders looked in her eyes and said, "Think of how mad your dad would be if he found out we blew up half the street, it's time to just leave it." Mai knew Azula was listening now, she also knew the youngest Sozin wouldn't do anything that might upset her father.

That being said and done, Azula walked back over to her car and payed at the pump. The girls got back into the car and drove off back to the Sozin mansion. Azula could see out the rearview mirror when Sokka walked out with his arm around Yue, kissing her on the cheek his face lit up with joy even when Katara threw a straw wrapper from her soda at the two and yelled jokingly at them to knock it off. Her brother smiled but his joy was short lived when he saw the state his car was in. His expression fell and Yue covered her mouth with her hand in shock. Azula feeling no remorse at all, just smirked.

* * *

The girls got home and walked in the door to see Zuko watching the news, Sokka Kuruk's face appeared on the screen looking devastated at his car. Mai and Ty Lee looked at eachoter and Ty Lee said, "Um we're going to meet you in your room okay Azula?" Azula nodded not taking her gaze off of the screen, and her two friends exited.

The reporter continued, "The car had been keyed along with its head lights broken in, but there was also a large amount of gasoline that had been poured over the car suggesting that someone had tried to set it on fire. There have been no ideas as to who the vandilizer may be but if you have any information then please contact your authorites. I'm Joo Dee and have a good night."

Zuko switched off the television and stared fiercely at Azula, "You couldn't just leave it alone could you? What was the point, honestly? You already kicked them out of the club, why do anymore damage to them?"

"I don't know what you're talking about ZuZu," Azula said dismissivley as she ascended the staircase.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about Azula! You did that to the Kuruks, they weren't a threat but you still had to go and destroy whatever dignity they had left after tonight," Zuko yelled.

"All I did was make sure they remember their place in society, you should remember yours too ZuZu," Azula said as she walked down the hall and to her room leaving Zuko standing at the end of the hallway.

He called after her, "You know, maybe mom was right about you Azula. You really are a monster." Azula slammed her door at his statement. Neither Ty Lee nor Mai was currently in the room. Azula stomped over to her dresser and started to pull her hair out of the messy bun it was in and got into her pajamas angrily. What did Zuko know? Nothing, he was just a sad little emo kid who whined about their mom all day. Once in her pajamas she walked over and lay down on her low the ground bed. She got underneath the covers and moved to turn off her lamp on her nightstand but stopped to look at the picture next to it.

The picture was a family photo taken when Azula was younger, she sat on her father's lap and Zuko stood next to their mother who was smiling softly. This was probably the only picture in the whole house that was left of Ursa. Zuko had taken some and moved them to Iroh's place so they wouldn't get burned with the rest of the pictures. Azula stared at her mother and thought, 'Why wasn't I good enough?'

She heard a knock on her door and quickly shut off the light and pretended to be asleep. The door creaked open letting a stream of light in, Zuko then whispered, "I'm going to spend the night at Uncle's. I'm sorry about what I said, I was out of line." Azula didn't answer as the door was slowly shut. While in the dark she silently though, 'No ZuZu you were right, mom was too.' She did not make any acknowledgment to Mai or Ty Lee when they entered the room. The two girls had heard everything and decided against saying anything to Azula and started to unroll their sleeping bags.

* * *

Okay, I know that it kinda sucked but the other chapters will be better. This isn't going to focus around Azula, you'll see that in the next chapter but I had to start somewhere. Anyway tell me what you thought and review!


	2. Chapter 2

Just a few things, in this story Toph isn't blind, sorry if that makes you mad, and I don't know if Suki is an orphan or not but in my story she has a dad. Also pairings will develop over time so just watch the fun.

* * *

It was a quiet monday morning in the Terra Subdivisions, the inhabitants still mostly asleep. All except a select few, Suki Kyoshi let the screen door of her house slam as she left her home at around six in the morning. Why be up so early? Suki along with a few other kids from Terra who attended Element Private had combat classes in the morning taught by Mr. Piandao. She also walked to school since she didn't live far from it. Suki pulled the hood of her dark green jacket up over her head just as her dad called after her.

"Hey kid! Forget something?" he was waving her knee pads around that she would need for volleyball practice after school. Suki grinned sheepishly as she walked back up the stoop of her house and grabbed her knee pads from her dad. "Thanks dad," and she kissed him on the cheek. He waved to her as she walked down the sidewalk and off toward the Bei Fong Estate.

Toph was waiting outside the gates of her house dressed in full uniform, a green skirt, yellow blouse with a gold vest and tie and a green blazer over it, as Suki approached. Suki didn't wear her uniform to school because it wasn't practical for combat class, however Toph, who was also in the same combat class, well her parents were very protective of their only child and would would never let "their delicate lily" ever do such a thing. So the story was that Toph went in early for help with Algebra each morning.

Toph was picking at her teeth when Suki approached and greeted the older girl by saying,"S'about time you showed up, I was about to leave without you." Toph picked up her back pack and slung it over her shoulders and the two proceeded on to school.

Suki grinned, "Sorry I forgot my knee pads so I was a bit held up." Toph shrugged in response as they rounded the street corner that turned into neutral ground. They walked in through the open gymnasium doors and walked to the combat room where Haru Dow was sitting in the middle of the padded floor eating a breakfast bar. The long haired boy waved at the two since his mouth was full.

"Hey ponytail! What you got there?" Toph asked greedily as she threw her backpack down with a loud thump. Haru gulped down what was in his mouth before he replied.

"Oatmeal breakfast bars, I brought enough for you guys too," he said digging into a clear plastic grocery bag. After fishing out two bars he threw them to his friends, though Toph snatched one greedily before he could hand her one, but Suki caught hers with cat-like reflexes, "Thanks Haru. Where's Piandao?"

"He left a note, said he had a faculty meeting and to team up and do sparring drills," Haru answered.

"Aw man! We were supposed to do wrestling today too!" Toph complained as she tossed her empty oatmeal bar wrapper in the garbage.

Suki glanced around the room, noticing that they were missing someone. Before she could say anything Toph voiced a question, "Where's Jet? Staring up upperclassmen girls skirts again?"

Haru laughed, "He hasn't been here yet but the senior hallway might not be a bad place to look." As the three laughed, their missing friend limped in. That got all of their attention immediately and they all stiffened.

Jet's breathing was labored as he sat down on the floor next to Suki and grinned as if he always walked into school limping. "Hey guys what's up?"

The three stared at him seriously but Suki was the one to speak first, "Gee I don't know, why are you limping?"

Jet's smile disappeared, "Would you believe falling down the stairs?"

"Nice try, now what really happened?" Toph asked.

Jet sighed, "Alright, I got home late last night after hangin' out with a couple guys. When I got back Long Feng was beating up Smellerbee." Suki gasped, Jet often had horror stories of what went on in his foster home but usually they didn't involve the younger kids such as Smellerbee and The Duke, most of the time it was Jet who got the beating. Long Feng wasn't an alcoholic or anything, just a controlling man who wanted things his way or there would be consequences.

"Where was Longshot? More importantly, why was Long Feng beating up Smellerbee and is she okay?" Haru asked, usually the silent boy never let anyone touch a harmful finger on Bee.

"I'm getting to that part, just hang on. Longshot was passed out on the floor when I got there, he's in the hospital now with a concussion and a few other injuries. Smellerbee's fine, just a few bruises. Jun apparently decided last night that she was dropping out of college to be a bar tender. Well obviously Long Feng didn't like that very much and threw a glass at her head, she dodged it and ran out of the house and didn't come back till much later. Anyway from what Sneers says, the old man was bad mouthing Jun calling her a stupid whore and other stuff and that's when Bee spoke up. All she did was tell him to cut it out, the words were out of her mouth before she realized she said them and Long Feng started slapping and kicking her. She cried out and that's when Longshot ran down the stairs and tried to tackle Long Feng. Longshot isn't the strongest guy and to summarize Long Feng basically threw him back onto the stairs where he blacked out.

"Smellerbee just got more scared and angry and ran at him pounding her fists against his back, Long Feng was about to punch her right in the face when I got there. I got to him just in time to stop his hand and twist him into a headlock, then I yelled at Smellerbee to go upstairs. She didn't at first, probably in shock or something, so I yelled at her again and this time she listened and ran up to her room I think. As soon as I heard her door slam I let go of Long Feng and threw a right hook at him. I got a few other good hits in too, but he kicked me in the ribs and I stumbled back into the living room wall. Then he threw a chair at me right where he kicked me in the ribs, and then he punched me in the face. He said that next time I tried something like that he'd make sure I ended up just like Longshot, blacked out and non-responsive."

The other teens sat with solemn looks on their faces. "Do you know if your ribs are broken? Lift up your shirt and lets see the damage," Suki demanded seriously but jet gave her a seductive look which made her smile a little, "Oh shush! Get your mind out of the gutter and let me see." Jet laughed but did as he was told, as he lifted up his shirt the teens stared at the patterns of dark blues and purples that made their way across his abdomen.

Suki glared, angry that anyone could do such a thing and get away with it. Toph shook her head, her black bangs hiding her eyes and Haru spoke, "You can't go on living there Jet, you have to say something."

Jet lowered his shirt before he answered, "If I said anything to anyone it wouldn't matter, Long Feng would pass any test the government threw at him. He's real good at playing dress up, but I might not have to stay there much longer, like I said earlier Jun came back late. She climbed in through my window and saw the state I was in. She gave me alook and said, "What the hell happened to you?" I told her what happened and she went to check on Smellerbee, a little later she came back and we talked. She looked at my ribs, said that none of them were broken but there might be internal bleeding, don't worry I got checked out at the hospital when we took Longshot. I'm not going to collapse or anything, anyway she said she's thinking about moving out. She said she's got enough money to get a cheap apartment."

"Go with her," Suki urged.

"I told her she's taking me with if she goes, but then I thought of the others and what happened last night. How much worse would it have been if I wasn't there? I have to stay at least for a little longer so I can figure something out with the others."

"Dude I can take you in no problem, my mom loves you and I'm sure my parents would let Longshot stay too," Haru said trying to be pesuasive as he handed the other boy a breakfast bar. Jet took it and started to shovel it down.

"Yeah, my dad and I could take in The Duke," Suki offered. Toph also jumped in, "With a little persuading I could get my parents to let Smellerbee stay at my place too."

Jet smiled as he chewed. He swallowed and said, "Thanks guys but I think I've got it under control. Don't worry I won't be there any longer than I have to be." His friends looked at him with concern, "I promise." He got up to his feet with a little wincing and said, "Now who's ready to do some actual fighting?"

"Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Toph said excitedly getting to her feet, she still hadn't realized that she was still in her school uniform.

Suki laughed as she pulled her hoodie up over her head, "Um Toph, you might want to lose the skirt first."

* * *

It was right after volleyball practice and other than going home to chill, Suki was hanging out in the combat room once again. It was empty now that fencing practice was out. Jet had skipped fencing today given his current condition. He also had detention that ran late on Mondays, so she had no one to spar with but that was okay, sometimes she preffered to practice alone.

After she taped up her wrists she walked over to the stereo in the corner and looked through the homemade CD's. None were real appealing until she found one labeled 'Toph's Totally Boss Mix CD, part DOS!!' written in jagged orange permanent marker. She put the CD in the stereo and hit play, instantly loud rock music filled the tiny room.

Suki stretched out her arms and made her way over to one of the punching bags hanging in the corner of the room. She began one of the combo drills Piandao taught them on Friday, hit with the left then the right, a few rotating kicks in the air, a roundhouse kick, and then a a quick jab right where the bridge of where a real assailants nose would be. To top it off she added a move of her own into the combo, she quickly sprang into a handstand and kicked her legs out behind her. What she didn't expect was to make contact with a human.

"Oof!" a body fell to the ground and Suki quickly got back to her feet to see who she had hit. She had hoped it wasn't Jet since she thought she had hit the person in the torso, and thankfully it wasn't Jet. It was however a boy, he had tan skin and dark brown hair that was tied in a short ponytail and had blue eyes that were slightly watering at the moment and he gasped out, "I surrender!"

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry I didn't hear you come in, are you okay?" She said grabbing the boy's arm and helping him to his feet.

"Yeah I'm fine," the boy said gasping at first but then he quickly regained his composure, "I mean of course I'm fine, you didn't hit me _that_ hard."

Suki gave the boy a cynical look, "Uh-huh sure, if you say so. What were you doing in here in the first place? You're not in Piandao's morning class and you don't look like any of the fencers I usually see in here."

"I heard loud music coming from down the hall and decided to check it out because I was bored," the boy said casually as he tried to lean up against the wall of the room but missed and almost fell over again but this time he caught himself.

Suki laughed and held out her hand, "I'm Suki Kyoshi."

The boy took her hand and grinned a goofy grin, "Sokka Kuruk." That name sounded familiar to Suki, where had she heard it before? Then it was like a gong went off in her head.

"You're the boy who's car got vandalized over the weekend right?" Suki asked as she walked over to Piandao's "office", which was more like a closet, and opened the mini fridge where her teacher kept bottles of water and pulled out two offering Sokka one.

His face fell at the memory of his fallen car as he took the bottle from her, "Yeah that would be me."

Suki took a gulp from her water, "How is your car?" She sat down on the floor and Sokka imitated her.

"Well it's still in the shop and it's going to cost a bit to fix it, so basically no social life for a few months. Sucks 'cause now I have to wait for my sister's swim practice to be over before I can go home. My Gran won't pick me up any earlier and it's a long walk to the Southern District from here," he finished.

Suki gulped her water hard, "You're from the Southern District?" She was surprised, usually kids from the Districts were quieter and less outgoing but not this boy, he wasn't in his uniform either. He was in plain sweat clothes, if he had been in the uniform she would have been able to tell from the color tie he wore.

"Yeah, you're not I'm guessing?" He said while picking up one of the fancy swords Piandao had up on the wall, the kind he didn't allow his students to practice with since they were real and very expensive. It was made out of a shiny black metal that Suki didn't recognize. Sokka was admiring it when he almost dropped it but Suki's reflexes helped her catch it before it clattered to the floor. Sokka gave her a bashful look as she took the sheath from him, smiling as she returned it to its place on the wall with the others.

"No I'm from the Terra Subdivisions, guess that means we shouldn't be talking huh?" Suki said, mocking tradition.

"Oh yes! We wouldn't want people to actually be civil with each other now would we?" Sokka said making Suki laugh, he smiled and continued, "yeah I figured you were either from Terra or Central. You're too nice to be from the Estates."

"Thanks for the compliment," She said and then there was silence for a bit, not liking the quiet very much she voiced an idea, "y'know, technically we're still at school so we're not breaking any stupid rules." She moved a little closer to him, Sokka was cute and he seemed to be taking a little interest in her so why not see where this could go.

"Hmm, you've got a point there. So if I were to just show up here after school sometimes we could chill or spar or something," Sokka said getting where Suki was coming from...somewhat.

"Oh I would totally kick your butt if we sparred, no offense," Suki said joking around but Sokka did in fact take offense. His face got all screwed up and his brow furrowed.

"I don't think so. Girls aren't very good at fighting, no offense," he retorted. "Besides, I've got some pretty sweet firepower in these guns," he said flexing his arms, Suki had seen better and was not impressed.

"Uh-huh, we'll see about that sometime okay?" she said walking back over to the punching bag. Just as she was about to get ready to start training again, Sokka came up behind her.

"How about today? Come on, you and me right now," he said taking a battle stance.

Suki laughed, "Okay but you asked for it." She bowed to him and he did the same, he ran at her and tried to do a snap kick but she dodged it easily and took the oppurtunity to strike a pressure point between his neck and his shoulder. Sokka collapsed on the floor and Suki smiled as she stood over her fallen opponent, "Good round!"

Sokka said, "Oh it's not over yet." He swung her legs out, kicking hers out from under bringing her down to the floor as well. He then pinned her against the floor, "Give up yet?"

Suki scowled, "You're not as bad as I thought you were, but no I'm not giving up so easily." She stared him in the eyes with determination.

"Oh damn! Suki I didn't know you liked it rough," a voice came from the doorway. Jet stood there smiling contentedly like the cat that ate the canary with his phone out and seemed to be recording a video of the incident. Whether the boy was injured or not, Suki would do whatever it took to make sure that video would never reach public eyes.

She went to push Sokka off of her but Sokka already was standing up throwing his hands up in the air, "Hey man it's not like that, we were just sparring. If she's your girlfriend I'm sorry." Suki glanced at Sokka, 'It's not like that? Wasn't he flirting with me though?' She hoped that if she showed any sign of rejection that it wasn't caught by either boy.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Be careful, she might just kick your ass if you go too far," Jet said slightly limping over to throw his arm around Suki's shoulders. "And don't worry, she's not my girlfriend, more like an annoying little sister." He reached down and ruffled Suki's short red hair, she responded by swatting his hand away and scowling at Jet who just smiled mischieviously.

Sokka grinned, "Speaking of which, hi Katara!" Two tan skinned girls stood in the doorway, one had dark brown hair and the other strangely had bright white hair. Both girls looked slightly tired and had red goggle marks around their eyes.

The dark brown haired one walked closer, "Oh shut up Sokka. Every one knows you're the annoying one in the family." The white haired girl followed Katara and laughed as she went to hug Sokka who wrapped an arm around her as she did so.

"Sokka be nice to your sister, who are your friends?" The white haired girl asked, her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at Suki who suddenly felt self conscious and grimy compared to the girl who looked sqeaky clean and smelled of chlorine. This girl had a pretty smile, white teeth contrasting with her skin, she seemed friendly too. She must have been one of "those" girls. You know the kind, the all around good girl, nice to everyone, pretty, smart, athletic, you get the picture. Suki had never really felt jealous until this point in her life.

"I'm Suki and this is Jet," She pointed a thumb up to the shaggy haired boy who still had his arm around her, feeling uncomfortable she shrugged out from under it. She smiled back at the girl wanting to at least be nice, Suki didn't have a claim on Sokka anyway, none what so ever.

"And this is my little sister Katara and my girlfriend Yue La Tui," Sokka said. Katara gave a small wave, Suki guessed she was about a year younger than herself. Yue she knew was her age, she had been in her gym class last year now that Suki thought about it.

"Well we better get going but it was nice to meet you," Yue said sweetly, Katara nodded in agreement glancing over at Jet who returned the gaze before turning around to walk out with her brother and the older girl.

As they were leaving Sokka turned his head and called out, "Good round Suki, see ya!"

Suki waved but didn't say anything as she watched them round the corner and disappear. As soon as they were gone Suki turned to Jet who had a rather smug look on his face and that was never a good sign. "What?" Suki questioned, not sure if she wanted to know what was going on in her friend's head.

"Aw nothing, except our widdle Suki's got a crush on someone!' Jet teased, Suki aimed a punch at the boy who dodged it. Even injured Jet's reflexes were quick. As she started to unwind the tape on her hands all she had to say to him was, "Shut up, I do not."

"Hey it's okay if you thought he was cute," Jet said watching as she packed up.

"I did not think he was cute, besides he's got a girlfriend. And he's from the Southern District so in Society rules I'm pretty sure me going out with him would be a big no," Suki said as she slung her backpack over her shoulders and began to walk out of the room, she shut off the lights and locked the door once Jet was out.

"Ah I see, well that won't do. Though if you really wanted to I'd approve, he's not from th Estates so he must be okay. Anyway you know there's always me or Haru if you get bored and need to make out or something," Jet said once again teasingly, he had known Suki since they were in third grade so dating her would really be like asking him to date his sister.

Suki laughed understanding that he was only joking she gave his shoulder a light punch and then asked, "You're staying at my place for dinner right?" Jet tried to spend as much time as he could at his friends houses and he usually ate at Suki's on Mondays, but something told Suki today would be different. He had a dark look in his eyes now, all signs of joking and happiness were gone.

"No I don't think I can tonight. Next week for sure okay?," He said seriously, noticing the worried look on her face he said, "Hey, don't worry. I know what I'm doing, I'll stay away from old Fengie tonight okay?" Suki nodded. She would have preffered he stay at her place or Haru's but, him staying away from Long Feng was better than nothing.

As they were walking out of the school's premisis Suki couldn't get Sokka's face out of her head. 'Unrequited love sucks,' Suki thought while she and Jet were walking down the sidewalk. She looked up at the blue sky, she officially hated the color she decided.

* * *

Salsa music was playing in the kitchen of the small apartment that Sokka and Katara lived in with their dad. Hakoda Kuruk was a Chief Officer who worked nights so Sokka and Katara's grandmother who lived on their floor just a few doors down, most nights came over and cooked them dinner and stayed there usually until Hakoda came home. The apartment was small, but it was just big enough for the family of three. There were three bedrooms that were spaced not too far from one another with a bathroom at the end of the hall, and the kitchen was joined with the living room.

Katara sat on the sagging couch doing her Geometry homework while Sokka sat at the other end with Yue at his side. The two were both watching the news on tv, a story of a grocery store near Terra had been broken into and there was reason to believe that the Raiders, a gang from the Ember estates, was to blame. A picture of the man who owned the store flashed on the screen. He was short and was staring sadly at his broken cabbage stand.

"That's so sad, who do those kids from the Estates think they are?" Yue said in disgust.

"People with lots of money who can afford to get away with anything. Why do you think we haven't pressed charges against Azula? I saw her car drive away and no one else had been around but her dad could get whatever lawyer he wanted to turn it around and say that I did it myself or something," Sokka said angrily as he watched Joo Dee sign off and he turned off the tv.

The delicious smell of salmon filled the air and suddenly Sokka forgot his anger as he made his way to the kitchen. His grandmother was just putting the seasoning on the fish as he walked in. Noticing her grandson's hunger she said, "They're just about ready so get some plates and silverware out on the table." Sokka did as he was told and Gran Gran called into the living room, "Yue I assume you're staying for dinner dear?"

The white haired girl walked into the kitchen with her jacket on, "No I'm sorry. My dad wants me home for dinner tonight so I better get home before it gets dark."

Gran Gran nodded, "You be careful now. Go straight home, no detours. After hearing what that awful Sozin girl did to Sokka's car and what happened in Terra today I'm hesitant to let you walk home alone." The old woman's face was full of concern as was Sokka's.

He walked over to Yue and said, "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you home? It's no big deal really."

Yue shook her head, "I'll be fine, I've got my pepper spray. Don't worry about me, I'll call you when I get home tonight if it will make you feel better."

"Thank you!" Sokka said as he picked her up for a quick second before placing a small kiss on her lips, making Yue giggle. "Okay, okay I really have to get going now but I'll see you tomorrow at school okay? Bye guys!" Yue said as she started walking to the door with Sokka following behind her. She opened the door, kissed her boyfriend on the cheek and walked out into the hallway

"Yeah okay. Bye, I love you," Sokka called after her as she got closer to the huge old stair case. She stopped and looked back at him, "I love you too." Then she disappeared down the steps and Sokka walked back into the house and went to the kitchen where Katara and Gran Gran were already sitting. He took his spot opposite of Katara and began to dig in.

On the wall opposite of him was a single picture. His mom. In the photo she was sitting on the bed in her parents bedroom staring out the window with a thoughtful look on her face as sun came in brightening the room. She hadn't known Hakoda had taken the picture until later and she was simply beautiful in that picture. Out of all the ones they had of his mom that was Sokka's favorite.

Their mom had died when Sokka was about seven and Katara was six. The kids had been at school and Sokka's mom was at home, she had taken a break from her job as a nurse when Sokka was born. One day she wasn't there after school to pick them up, their dad was and that never happened. Hakoda didn't take them home to their nice apartment on Beach Street, instead he took them to his friend Bato's or "uncle Bato" to the kids, home. When they got there Hakoda broke the news to his children, their mom was gone and wasn't coming back. A fire had broken out in the building, a fire Sokka would later learn that was started by the Raiders. Kya had been in the laudry room in the basement, the fire had started in the next room and the gang members had blocked the door. Their mom had been murdered it was as simple as that, he and Katara didn't go to school for a week after that and they had to move into their small apartment on Cerulean Drive.

As Sokka looked at the picture of his mom on the wall he just got angry again. That anger turned to anxiety as he thought of Yue, he hoped she would be alright as she was walking home. Then another thought crossed into his mind, what if he never saw her again? Deciding that he was just being stupid Sokka focused his attention back on his food and listened to the conversation that his sister and his Gran Grand were having.

* * *

Okay so tell me good or bad? I'd like to get a review so I can know if I should continue this story or if I'm just wasting my time. Sorry if Sokka's a little OC, I'm not very good at writing funny characters. Oh and to explain the part where Suki's suggesting that they hang out more and Sokka offers, Sokka is slightly attracted to her but as we can see loves Yue so he thinks of Suki as a friend...poor Suki.


	3. Chapter 3

First of all I wanted to say thank you to A711owner, my first reviewer! It made my day! And that's about it so yea... Oh I don't own avatar I don't think I put that disclaimer up yet lol. Thoughts are in italics.

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Yue boarded the subway that would take her back to her home in the Northern District. She usually didn't like to take the subway, it was loud and smelled weird. She usually took a cab home from Sokka's when he couldn't drive her but today she had found out she was running low on cash and she knew that neither Sokka or her father would be happy if they found out she had walked home, so she'd have to endure the subway and it's outlandish travelers. To her surprise the compartment she boarded was almost empy, except for a group of kids who looked like they were from the Estates, _'That's strange. Wouldn't they just drive home?" _

Other than the out of place group of kids from the Estates, there were two younger boys sitting far away from eachother. They looked like freshmen and one even had on the school uniform. The boy in the uniform had short and bristlely dark brown hair and wore a loosened orange tie, _'A kid from Central that's something you don't see everyday.'_ In total there were probably about fifty or so kids from the Central area at Element Private and compared to the few hundred that each of the other areas had alone, they were highly outnumbered. The boy was concentrating very hard on a map and he looked a little lost.

_'It looks like it's his first time riding, maybe I should go help him out.' _Yue glanced warily at the group of Ember Estates kids, she didn't want any trouble tonight. Luckily they were all too involved in their own conversation. _'Why should you worry about them anyway? Sokka was talking to that one girl today and she clearly was not from the Districts so why not.'_ Yue then got up from her spot and sat down next to the younger boy. He gave her a friendly smile but she could see in his eyes that he was wondering just why exactly had she come to sit down next to him. The boy at the other end was wearing the same look the Central boy's eyes but only on his face.

Yue smiled at the younger boy showing him that she was only trying to be nice and said, "Hi, um I know it's probably not any of my buisness but you look kind of lost and I was wondering if I could help."

The boy looked down in embarrassment but still maintained his smile, "Is it that obvious?"

Yue giggled quietly, "It's okay everyone needs help finding their right stop the first time. May I?" She gestured to the boy's map, and he gave it to her willingly."What stop are you looking for?"

"Prefferably the West side of Central," The boy laughed quietly. "I'm Aang by the way." The white haired girl smiled at his friendliness, "I'm Yue, nice to meet you Aang." Neither of them noticed that it had suddenly gotten very quiet in the compartment nor did they notice that they had attracted the attention of the group of Ember Estates kids.

Yue glanced at the map for a quick second then found what would be the best stop for Aang, "Okay, you're going to want to get off at Current, that's the closest you can get to the Western part." She handed the map back to him and he nodded a thank you. Yue then out of curiosity asked, "What are you doing out so late anyway?" It was about eight o' clock and for a school night, Yue counted that as late.

"Oh I had a project a I had to work on with a couple other kids from school. We met at one of the YMCA's on no man's land and my gaurdian Gyatso teaches a class around this time so he couldn't come get me which is why I had to take the subway," Aang said stuffing the map into his messenger bag at his feet. "What about you why are you out so late?"

Before Yue could answer a large shadow fell over them. They looked up to see that the group of kids from the Estates had gotten up and taken interest in them. A tall boy with brown hair that Yue recognized but didn't know his name from her grade stood in front of the group with his arms crossed and a wicked grin on his face. "Go on tell him why, we'd all like to know why you're out on Ember turf anyway wouldn't we boys?" The boys behind him laughed menacingly and Yue felt Aang tense up beside her.

Yue shifted slightly in her seat, "Last time I checked the Subway was neutral ground, we're just trying to get home like you are," She said quietly but bravely.

The large boy didn't seem too satisfied with that answer, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up with enough force that made her wince he then growled in her ear, "I really don't care if it's neutral or not. That doesn't matter, if an Ember kid is present then it's Estates turf got it? Now what were you doing out so late? Didn't you hear that the Raiders are out prowling tonight? I would think that would make things way too dangerous for someone from the Districts."

_'Who is this guy?'_ Yue thought hard trying to remember if he was in one of her classes, that way later maybe she could do something about the way he was acting.

"Let her go, she didn't do anything to you. She was just being helpful," Aang said bravely as he stood up.

The leader laughed, "Oh yeah? Whatcha gonna do if I don't let her go? Call one of your philosophy teachers that live in the building with you and have them lecture to me about peace? I don't think so kid." The boy tightened his grip on Yue, making her eyes water, Aang lunged at the leader but was caught by a couple of the brown haired boy's cronies before he could do anything.

The boy's amber eyes bored into Yue's saphire ones, she heard a metallic click and looked down. The boy held in his hand a hand gun but she also saw tatooed on his wrist was the gang symbol for the Raiders gang, a raven. Terror ran through Yue's mind, _'Why didn't I let Sokka come with me? He might have been able to do something about this.' _

The gang leader cackled again at Yue's fear as he raised the gun to her temple, "Y'know we already killed some Terra scum today, why not add a District whore and a Central pussy to the list." Tears escaped down Yue's face, she closed her eyes not wanting the last pair of eyes she looked into to be belonging to this evil boy. She readied her self for the sound but the gunshot never came, a thud did though and the leader had let go of Yue. She opened her eyes to see what had happened, the other quiet boy had tackled the gang leader and had his arm twisted behind his back he looked up at Yue and his eyes said 'run'.

Yue would have done so but the train was still in motion, there was no escape. The gang leader pushed the boy off of him and sent him toppling into a pair of other Raiders who caught him by the arms. The leader stood up and walked over to the small boy who was now struggling to get away from his captors. The leader looked down at the boy hatefully, "You shouldn't have done that."

"And you shouldn't have lit that man's store on fire today, but you did anyway," The boy snapped.

"The old man was asking for it just like you are now," the leader responded. He then raised up a large leg that wore a heavy looking black boot and before either Aang or Yue could stop him, he let his his foot come crashing down on one of the boys legs. A loud crack of breaking bones was followed by the young boy's screams and the gang leader's laughing. He lowered himself down to the boy's level, "You'll stop screaming if you don't want me to break the other." The younger boy glared at the leader and spat right in his face.

The leader wiped the saliva off of his face and then narrowed his eyes at the younger boy, "You know just for that not only will I break you other leg, I'll make sure you never will be able to walk again." With that, the boy's heavy boot came down on the younger boy's other leg making him scream again. Yue couldn't take anymore of this, she lauched herself from behind the leader before he could do anymore damage to the injured boy. She jumped on him and threw her hands over his eyes and started digging her nails into his skin. He yelled out in pain and tried to toss her off but she wouldn't let go.

The train started to slow down and Yue looked at Aang frantically, he looked terrified, she yelled to him, "Get off at this stop!" Aang didn't answer but was staring at Yue's side. She looked down hoping to discover what Aang thought was so interesting, she found it and that's when the world seemed to slow down. She didn't know how she didn't feel the leader stab her with the knife that was now deeply lodged in her side. Blood had already stained her gray jacket and there was a lot of it, too much. Shocked from the sight Yue let go of the killer and let herself fall onto the dirty floor. The pain from the injury was now present and she noted that it was getting harder to breathe.

The train had come to a complete stop, Aang and the injured boy stared in horror at her while the leader ripped the knife out of her side and yelled at the other members to get off. He focused his attention on Aang and the other boy. He pointed the blood stained knife at the boys and said, "If you two say anything at all about this then I will come find you and make sure you end up the same way as her got it?" He didn't wait for a response but ran off of the car before the sliding doors closed.

Aang rushed over to Yue's side her eyelids were starting to feel heavy, it also had gotten very cold in the car. She was faintly aware of hearing Aang dial nine-one-one on his cell phone and the other boy telling him to wrap his tie around the wound but slowly things got quieter until there was no noise at all. Some part of her brain told her something was very wrong but Yue was focusing on something else, a memory of Sokka's face smiling at her. It was the last thing she saw before she slipped into a permanent sleep.

* * *

The funeral service had taken place on a Thursday at Koh Cemetery which was neutral ground. School had only been in session for half of the day out of respect for the death of one of its students. Aang stood away from the other District members along with Teo, the boy who's legs the gang leader broken. The doctors had put Teo in a wheel chair and said they weren't sure whether or not he'd be able to walk again. Apparently the gang leader's blow had done a lot of damage to the boy's leg muscle memory.

A young man and girl stood next to who Aang assumed was Yue's father. The girl had tears running freely down her face and the boy looked as if he was trying very hard not to cry. His attempts were fruitless though as a single tear fell down his face, he wiped it away with his sleeve before anyone could see it.

As the casket was lowered one by one people started to leave, Yue's father waited until the casket hit the bottom before he left. He embraced the boy in quick hug before he left leaving the boy alone with a single white lily in his hand. Aang and Teo looked at eachother, was it safe to approach the grave? Would the boy be mad? Despite their worries, Aang wheeled Teo closer to the grave. Hearing them from behind him, the tan boy turned to see who it was with sad eyes. He didn't say anything to the two but didn't break his gaze.

Aang didn't like the silence so he managed to stutter out, "Hi um, I'm Aang and this is Teo." Teo gave the boy a small wave before Aang continued, "We were on the train with your sister when it happened."

"She wasn't my sister," Sokka said quietly. "She was my girlfriend." Aang was taken aback and didn't really know what to say to the boy after his comment, thankfully Teo started to do the talking.

"She was real brave, she went after the guy after he smashed my legs. I know that whether or not I'm alive doesn't mean a whole lot to you but I just wanted to say that what she did for me was appreciated," Teo said to the boy. The boy was silent.

"Teo actually tried to save her at first, the guy was about to shoot her but Teo tackled him before he could do it," Aang added.

The sad boy looked down at Teo and said, "Thank you. Is that why they broke your legs?" Teo nodded and the older boy continued "It takes a lot of guts to tackle a guy with a gun." Teo shrugged as if he did that sort of thing everyday.

"Well we just wanted to pay our respects to her. We'll leave you alone with her," Aang said as he turned Teo's chair away and started to wheel him down the sidewalk. Sokka turned away from the boys and focused his attention to Yue's grave again. He kneeled down and gently tossed the lily into the hole where it landed on top of the casket.

At the moment Sokka couldn't decide whether he was more angry or more sad. He was tired of the Estates people thinking they were invincible. First they took his mother, then Azula trashed the car that he had saved up for since he was in middle school, and now they took Yue away from him. When would it stop? Did all of his family have to die and then the Raiders and the others from the Estates might be happy.

He turned his thoughts away from those ones and started to remember all the fun times he and Yue had. He remembered how he tried to punch that jerk Hahn who she was going out with Freshman year when she caught him kissing another girl. Riding the ferris wheel at the carnival last summer, taking her to homecoming just a month ago, and when he tried to teach her how to play Super Smash Bros. Sokka realized that Yue wouldn't want him to mope around missing her for the rest of his life. He would try his best not to, but it going to take a long time.

Sokka didn't hear the footsteps approach behind him but he felt the pressure on his shoulder when a hand touched his shoulder sympathetically. It lingered there for a moment before it left and Sokka this time listened as the footsteps walked away, slowly getting quieter.

* * *

Aang stepped in through the door of the loft that he and Gyatso lived in and was greeted by his large mutt dog, Appa. The loft was relatively big, they lived on the top floor after all which meant they had the best view of the city from their balcony. That's where Aang guessed Gyatso was since the doors leading out to it were open and the elderly man wasn't in his favorite armchair. Aang walked outside to see that he had guessed right. Gyatso sat on one of the patio chairs sipping tea while staring out at the display of neon lights, their white cat with black spots, Momo was curled up at his feet.

"How was the funeral young one?" Gyatso asked. Aang plopped down in the chair next to him and sighed. Momo jumped up into the boy's lap and nudged at his hand. Aang got the message and started to pet the cat, still not answering the question his grandfatherly guardian had asked him. "That bad hmm?" Gyatso said giving the boy a half smile.

"I guess I just don't see why there needs to be violence. I know sometimes it's the only way to solve things like war and all that but Yue wasn't even bothering those kids and they killed her. How can someone have that much hate built up in them?" Aang asked exasperated. "There's no need for that kind of killing, why doesn't anyone just put a stop to it?"

Gyasto put his cup down on the small table in between the chairs and said, "Aang there are many things we do not understand in this world. How someone could take the life of such a young, innocent girl is something I certainly will never comprehend. The world is made up of many different people Aang, there are people like that out there, people who do not blink nor have any feeling after they commit a crime such as this. Sometimes we do not have the power to stop the ones who have committed the crime, but we always have the power to remember and help those who were affected by them."

"What if I did have the power to stop them? What if I did have enough strength to fight back and win?" Aang responded sounding somewhat uncharacteristically menacing.

Gyatso reached out for the boy's shoulder, he looked him in the eye and said firmly, "Violence is never the answer, you said so yourself not two minutes ago that there is no need for it."

Aang nodded as a sign that he understood, "I know. I'm not going to track down Yue's killer or anything like that, just voicing a thought. I think I know what I should do though." Aang stood up, Momo leaping from his lap before he did so. "Rules or no rules, I'm going to try to help out Yue's family and her friends to the best of my abilities."

"Now that is more like it. Come on now, let's go prepare dinner shall we?" the old philosopher got up from his spot and walked back into the loft. Aang gazed out to the city as the sky began to grow darker. His attention was drawn by a large building way off in the distance towards the East. It was one of Sozin Corp.'s and Aang couldn't help but feel angry as he looked at the company's scarlet phoenix symbol.

"Aang close the door, we wouldn't want to catch pneumonia now," Gyatso called from inside. Aang did as he was told and retreated back inside, he gave the building one last glance though and he couldn't shake the strange feeling of disgust. How many more people needed to die? How many families needed to be broken? A change was needed in this town, if he didn't start it then who would? Little did he know that somewhere much closer to the building, a raven haired boy a couple years older than him was wondering the exact same thing.

* * *

Oooh Aang's angry? That almost never happens! Haha okay, so I promise things will get more interesting soon. Zuko, Azula and the other Fire Nation kids will reappear within the next couple chapters. Points to anyone who can guess who put their hand on Sokka's shoulder. Also virtual cookies to those who review! I'd like to know if people think this story is worth their time.


	4. Chapter 4

Again thanks to A711owner for reveiwing! keeps me happy, any who here's the next chapter and I don't own Avatar. Please review!

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It was a Friday morning once again, the day after Yue's funeral to be exact and the Combat classroom was extremely noisy. Not only was Toph's CD blaring from the stereo but loud grunts and smacking sounds were also heard. Piandao watched his pupils as they sparred; Longshot was back in class after his excused leave of absence for his concussion, so the numbers were fairly even.

Suki and Toph were paired up and so far it was a close match, sometimes Suki had the advantage and other times it was Toph. The girls ducked, blocked, and hit with incredible speed and grace that it was hard to keep up at some points. Though at the moment Suki jumped into the air trying to gain a hit, but Toph caught the older girl's foot and pulled her down. Suki landed with a groan and Toph looked down at her looking rather pleased with herself.

Haru and Longshot were going at each other practicing with Piandao's wooden practice swords. Longshot didn't exactly have the upperhand when it came to sword fighting, his expertise was more in karate and archery, and it didn't help that he had been out of practice for nearly a week. As a result of that fact, Haru was winning.

Jet however was sitting up against the wall with a rather disgruntled look on his face as he watched his friends fight. Piandao had told him on Tuesday that he didn't like the look of Jet's bruises so Jet would have to sit out until they looked better whether or not the doctor had given him the okay to partake in class. Jet was also still limping so that concerned the boy's teacher too. He and Longshot had told Piandao that they had "just been foolin' around fighting when it got too far and we accidentally fell down the stairs."

The combat master may have accepted the boys' excuse for their injuries, but he wasn't quite sure if he believed it. Those two came in with a fresh set of bruises and cuts weekly, and some of them, such as the ones this week, looked way too severe to be caused by "Just foolin' around." But whenever he asked either boy anymore about it they either just shrugged or said they had to run off to class.

Shifting his thoughts away from Jet, Piandao was about to blow his whistle and signal for the students to stop so he could critique them when three other kids dressed in sweats walked in, two boys and one girl. The other students had noticed the new arrivals and stopped their sparring, Jet stood up from his spot and Piandao walked over to the group of kids. He moved his gaze over the three and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yes sir, my name is Sokka Kuruk and this is my sister Katara. We're interested in joining your class," Sokka said. "No we're not," Katara said, and Sokka gave her a silencing look. Katara folded her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes.

Piandao looked between the two before he spoke again "Uh huh, and what about you?" Piandao asked the other boy.

The boy looked somewhat nervous as he answered, "I'm Aang and I'm here for the same reasons as they are. Do you have room for us to join your class?"

Piandao looked back at his students and did a mental count, "Yes I believe we can squeeze you in. Now do any of you three have any experience in combat? Martial arts or fencing perhaps?"

Katara and Aang shook their heads but Sokka piped up, "I used to take Karate classes, I'm not that rusty either."

"He needs some work, but he's not too bad," Suki said from behind Piandao who turned his head to face her, she wore a very serious expression on her face and was staring right at Sokka.

Suki usually had the best judgement out of his students so Piandao took her word, "Alright you can join. Bring in the admission fee by Monday though. Hmm Toph, you team up with Aang and show him a few starter moves okay?"

"Not a problem teach, come on Twinkletoes," Toph said cracking her knuckles. She walked over to Aang, grabbed him by his wrist and dragged him off to a corner of the room with the punching bags.

"Okay Longshot and Haru, I guess you two can stay together. Jet you're not doing anything else, demonstrate a few moves to Katara but take it easy okay? I mean it, I don't want you strain yourself." Piandao looked reluctant as he said these words but Jet's face lit up.

He saluted his teacher and said, "Scouts honor sir. I can't hit a girl anyway remember?"

"What about Suki? Or Toph? You hit them all the time in practice," Piandao said while arching an eyebrow and grinning at the boy.

Jet shrugged and smirked, "Suki doesn't count, she hits back. And I don't think Toph's a girl," He shouted the last part loud enough so the short young lady could hear him.

"I heard that Jet! And you'll take it back if you don't want to walk with a permanent limp," Toph yelled back jokingly. She then turned to Aang who was looking uncomfortable, "What's wrong Twinkletoes? The punching bag isn't gonna eat you now hit it." Aang stared at the large bag and did as she said, only not with a whole lot of force. Toph sighed, "No, more like this." She hit the bag so hard that it made a loud thud. "That's how you do it. You gotta have force, get angry."

Jet laughed at the sight and was then tapped on the shoulder. He turned around to face Katara who looked less than pleased to be there at the moment, "Alright sensei lets get this over with."

"You don't sound too excited about it, and you don't really seem like the type of girl who'd want to be joining a class like this. What's the story?"" Jet asked sitting back down in his spot against the wall. Katara took a few steps toward him and sat down across from him, she looked annoyed.

"Sokka thinks this class would be good for me. His girlfriend Yue was murdered by the Raiders earlier this week and now he's worried about me. He says that had Yue known how to defend herself that she could still be alive. My dad completely agreed with him, they said it would be good to pick up a few defense moves. They didn't even ask me, it was just instantly decided that I would sign up. I'm not exactly a morning person either so no I'm not too excited to be here at school a whole hour and a half before school starts," she explained. Jet nodded after she finished but she wasn't sure which part he was agreeing with.

"Well usually I would side with you, it's not fair that they didn't ask you about it but in this case I think your dad and brother are right. It's a good class you will definitely learn how to protect yourself, plus you can hit a person as hard as you want if you're really mad or something," Jet said.

Katara smiled, "Yeah I guess you're right." She stood up and looked down at him. "So what's the first step?" Her face had changed from sad to happy, a pretty smile had spread across her face and she had a hand placed on her curvy hips. Jet had in fact fully decided that her brother and father were right in their decision. This girl walking down a street on her own would attract nothing but trouble. Jet wasn't going to lie to himself; he thought Katara was fine, he thought a lot of girls were fine and usually those girls ended up as angry ex-girlfriends so he didn't think much of it at the time.

'If she actually learns how to fight then she'll have that whole Angelina Joliee thing, sexy and dangerous. Damn Angelina Joliee is hot,' Jet thought.

Katara waved a hand in front of his face and was still smiling, "You still there? I asked what's the first step."

Jet snapped out of his reverie, "Yeah okay we're just gonna do some simple stuff like throwing punches." He got up and slowly demonstrated the right movements. Katara noticed that when he extended his arms he winced very slightly but rather than asking him what was wrong she copied just copied him with a bored look on her face. Jet saw this and said, "I know fundamentals aren't all that interesting, but we can't have you spraining something on the first day. You'll have to work up to the harder stuff."

"Whatever you say sensei," she said not looking at him.

Meanwhile Sokka and Suki were working on some more complex moves. Sokka lunged at her with an arm extended out toward her stomach but Suki caught his arm and twisted it behind his back, Sokka groaned and tried to get her to loosen her grip. Whatever he did it worked and that bothered him, it was too easy in the last fight she had been a lot harder. This fight was a lot different than the last one, for one thing Suki wasn't really putting up much of a fight and secondly there was no friendly banter going on between them either.

Suki mimicked his earlier move and just like her he caught her wrist but locked his blue eyes to her gray ones, "You're not giving it your all I can tell. I may have only fought you once but something tells me that if you had gone up against any one else in the room, you'd be putting up more of a fight." Suki was speechless. She didn't want to tell him she was going easy on him because of what he'd gone through this week, she was already ashamed of letting herself do so. Thankfully Piandao blew his whistle signaling that class was over. Suki forced her wrists out of his hold and retreated toward the girl's locker room and Sokka watched her as she left, she didn't look over her shoulder once.

.:.:.:.

Once he had gotten changed, Aang walked out of the locker room to see that most of the students had already left to go to their lockers or socialize with their friends before homeroom. The only ones still in the room in fact were Toph, Longshot, Suki and Jet. They were talking to Piandao about some fighting movie that had just come out. Not being too interested in the topic, Aang decided to walk out and head toward his homeroom. He was almost halfway down the hall when a pair of hands covered his eyes, "Guess who?" Toph.

Aang reached for her hands and took them off of his face, "Hey Toph what's up?"

"Our homerooms are right next door to eachother, to answer your real question of what am I doing here. I figured I'd walk you to class to make sure no one stole your lunch money or something," Toph said as the two continued to walk down the hall.

Aang smiled, "I guess I should be grateful for that?"

"Damn straight! I don't walk down the hall with just anybody y'know," Toph exclaimed. Aang noticed that she looked a lot different in her school uniform which was pressed neatly and showed no signs of a wrinkle which seemed uncharacteristic of the girl but he was just assuming that. She had let her short hair out of the pontail it had been in and replaced it with a headband instead. Toph also carried just her backpack with her, the other kids Aang had seen in the locker room carried both a back pack and a gym bag for their clothes. 'Maybe she's just keeping them in her back pack,' he thought.

Aang hadn't realized he was staring at Toph until she blew a pink bubble of gum in his face, "You okay there Twinkletoes? Ya kinda spaced out on me there."

"Oh I was just wondering where you keep your practice clothes, do you carry them with you?" Aang asked her.

"Nah, I keep 'em here. My parents would probably both go into cardiac arrest and then ground me forever if they ever found out I went to school early in order to fight other kids. They're the stupid overprotective type," Toph said.

"Ah I see, how do you get away with it though?" Aang asked.

"I tell them I come in for help with math and stuff, my butler signed the permission slip form saying he was my uncle or something. Whatever though, in four years I won't have to deal with them or this city anymore," Toph said stopping at a locker Aang assumed was hers and started to do the combination on it.

"What's happening in four years?" Aang asked though he probably could have guessed if he looked at the inside of Toph's locker. The door was filled with wrestling posters and tournament dates.

"Like I said getting out of here and going to this city called Gaoling, they have this wrestling tournament, The Earth Rumble and I know I could win it. This city sucks too, you can only hang out with certain people, and can only go to places that are on your territory which leaves us Terra kids with pretty much nothing," Toph said as she buried her head in her locker looking for her first hour books. Finally she surfaced and slammed the door shut and they started walking again, "Anyway what about you? What do you want to do after high school? Be a philosopher or something?"

"No I actually want to be a pilot, my dad was one and I always thought it'd be cool to fly," Aang said.

Toph scratched at a spot on her chin, "Yeah I guess I could see that." They finally got to Aang's locker and went on to talking about other stuff like music and movies. Toph preffered punk where Aang liked pretty much anything and they both decided that comedy was the best type of movie though Toph said Horror would be good too. They didn't notice the stares from other students but just went on talking as if they both came from the same part of town. Soon they were joined by Teo and that only earned them more stares from their fellow students, but either they still didn't notice or they just didn't care.

.:.:.:.

Suki shut her locker door and was surprised to see that someone had been standing behind it. Sokka stood there looking right at her as he leaned up against the lockers. Suki was confused as to why he was here but then she remembered that the lockers were in alphabetical order and his wouldn't be far from hers. Still there was the whole 'not allowed to talk to you since you're not from my territory' thing. She arched an eyebrow and said, "Can I help you?"

"Yeah why didn't you put up a fight in practice?" Sokka asked.

Suki sighed, "I'm sorry I was being stupid. I felt bad for you because of all the crap that you've had to go through this week and figured that maybe if I let you beat me, you'd feel better. I know it's lame," Suki said as she started to walk out to the courtyard, it was still nice weather outside and it beat sitting in a dark hallway. Suki sat down on one of the benches outside and Sokka sat down next to her.

"Yeah it is lame. You shouldn't have felt sorry for me," Sokka said and Suki hung her head a little, "But I guess it was kinda nice of you. Plus I did beat your but on Monday so maybe you were just scared or something." He stretched his arms behind his head as he said this.

Suki's head snapped up at that statement, "Uh you didn't beat me in that match, Jet interrupted it before it was finished." Suki's voice had suddenly become defensive, all thoughts of sympathy were gone.

"That may be so but who had the upperhand when Jet walked in?" Sokka asked smugly.

Suki frowned remembering the position she had been in, "You did. Fine you're right you won that time." She slouched down in her spot.

"That's right I'm right! Wait, I'm right?" Sokka said in surprise, making Suki laugh. Sokka had been serious when he asked her but smiled a little anyway. Then he felt a little guilty, Yue hadn't even been dead a week and here he was laughing with a girl he barely knew. Not only did he barely know her, but she was also from the Terra Subdivisions. What would Yue be thinking if she knew? These thoughts instantly killed Sokka's good mood.

Suki saw his face fall and guessed as to what did it. She placed a hand on his shoulder as he hung his head then she said, "You know if you want to talk about it, you can always talk to me." He looked up to see nothing but understanding and sympathy in her eyes.

As he looked at her, he suddenly felt okay, "Thanks Suki. That means a lot."

Suki smiled at him, "Don't mention it." The two sat there smiling at each other while a crowd of underclassmen were staring at them from the hallways. There was a huge mob in fact, one that blocked Katara from getting to her homeroom. She decided to push her way through the crowd to see what all the fuss what about, once she got to the front she saw a couple. A boy wearing a blue tie and a girl wearing the Terra Subdivision version of the uniform, Sokka and Suki. She couldn't hear what they were talking about but she noticed that Sokka was smiling, he hadn't smiled since Yue left and this wasn't even a Yue smile. This smile was something new.

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okay there it is so like I said review! I'm gpoing away for the weekend so I won't be able to reply or update for a few days = [ thx for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

Muchas gracias to creepingshadow for the review! really awesome of you, hope you guys like this chapter! As usual I don't own anything.

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Transcend, the bar on the corner of Regolith Avenue was packed. It was possibly the one interesting place that Terra had, it played good music and had some pretty decent food and most of the time you could walk out of the place with at least one number. It was also almost in the no-man's land part of Terra so every once in a while someone from Central or the Disricts would show up. This bar wasn't filled with snobby rich kids like Dante's either, the Ember residents usually decided to stay away. Not only that but it was a great place to work at too, free food and drinks and you could basically party with the customers too, and Jun had just gotten fired from it. How was she supposed to know that flirting was against the rules? Okay technically flirting wasn't against the rules but letting a guy feel you up while on the job definitely was.

So she stood outside under the shimmering neon sign, the colors reflecting on the sequins of her black dress. She took out a cigarette from the pack in her purse, she lit it and took a drag and thought. What now? Waltz back into Long Feng's house and announce that she had gotten fired from the bartending job that she had quit college for? She was smarter than that. She wanted badly to not live there anymore and legally she didn't have to, she was over eighteen now but she was also broke. Slacking off in high school and partying every weekend instead of getting a job was not one of her better ideas, she might have had some savings now if she had gotten one then. Which brought her back to her current situation: Now what?

Jun supposed she could work at some gentlemen's club or something, she had the body for it after all but the idea of mostly old horny guys gawking at her wasn't very appealing. Not to mention Long Feng just might kick her out for that and under different circumstances that wouldn't be such a bad alternative but the old man had something she didn't. A house and money, as it turns out the landlord of the apartment she told Jet she could get didn't exactly pass the health inspection test and the building had been evacuated. Everywhere else in town was too over-priced for her salary, she had some friends but they all were still either at college or living with their parents. She wasn't exactly liked by those parents either so this posed somewhat of a problem. She had nowhere and no one.

Jun knotted her fingers in her hair and kicked one of her stilletto black boots against the wall which resulted only in scuffing the shoe, "Shit, life's a bitch." She took another drag from her cigarette as she sank down to sit on the sidewalk, she pulled her black leather jacket closer to her and let out a cloud of smoke as she wallowed in her self pity.

"You know that stuff will kill you right?" Jun turned her head in the direction of where the voice had come. About ten or so feet away from her stood a boy with black hair that fell into his amber eyes and he wore a smile on his face. He was dressed in black pants with a dark red dress shirt that was untucked and sport coat, nicely in other words. Jun hated guys who dressed nicely, the only ones she knew who did came from Ember and that was basically self explanatory and this boy reeked of Ember Estates Country Club. She had to admit though that he was a little sexy.

"Yeah, all the fun stuff in life usually will do that to you. What do you care anyway?" She snapped before she placed the cigarette back in her mouth.

Much to her displeasure he walked over and sat down next to her on the pavement, "Usually I wouldn't but I'm in a curious mood today and you look like you're having a rough evening." As he was speaking he pulled out his own lighter, a zippo, and a cigarette and lit up.

"What happened to 'that stuff willl kill you'?" Jun asked as the man breathed out a puff of smoke.

"I only said it could kill you, I never said you shouldn't do it," he said. "So what's been going on?"

"Now why the hell would I tell you?" Jun said, more like shouted.

"'Cause I get the impression that you don't really have anyone else to complain to and I'm a nice guy," he said as he flipped the zippo back into his pocket. She caught a glimpse of the symbol on it: a phoenix. The Sozin family crest. Then the man suddenly looked familiar, Lu Ten Sozin. They had been in the same class at Element Private and he had been in her homeroom.

Figuring out who he was she stood up and started to walk off down the street only to have the Sozin boy get up and call after her, "Hey what did I do?" She didn't look back but he caught up to her and spun her around to face him. "What did I do?" he repeated.

Jun glared at him, "You're a Sozin it's self explanatory." His face fell realizing she must have seen the crest, but soon his face turned into a scowl.

"I may be a Sozin but something tells me I'm not the cause of your issues right now Jun, yeah I remember you don't look so surprised, so what is your deal?" He said, his voice was angry. Lu Ten remembered her? How? They had never talked at school besides the occasional "can I borrow a pencil?"

Though they never talked, she did remember that he hadn't been such a bad guy so knowing that Jun caved, "Fine. If you must know, I lost my job just now and I can't exactly go home because of said job or to any friend's house. Happy?"

"Why can't you go home?" he asked, his expression had softened a bit as he listened.

She dropped her finished cigarette on the ground and stomped forcefully on it, "Because my gaurdian, landlord, whatever the hell you want to call him isn't exactly happy with me right now and you don't want to make him mad. He gets real bitchy." She leaned up against the side of the building, "And since I got fired now I've got no income. Meaning no way to get out of the current living space."

"So basically you're screwed," he said.

"No shit Sherlock," she mumbled. There was a very short moment of quiet, the only noise that could be heard was the sound of Friday late night traffic and the music coming from the inside of the bar.

"I've got a place, it's my dad's actually but he's pretty lax about stuff. You can stay there if you want," he said staring at the passing cars.

Jun turned to look at him, was he serious? He was a Sozin, she was Jun Shirshu. No way was she moving in with this guy, but then again what other choices did she have? She couldn't go back to Long Feng's that was for sure. Lu Ten didn't seem all that bad either, not like some of the guys she hung around now anyway. She also had a reputation for doing the unthinkable and moving in with a Sozin definitely counted as unthinkable.

"Well if you insist, though if you're just trying to rape or kill me or something be warned. It won't work, I'll kick your ass," she said poking his chest.

Lu Ten smiled, "Yes ma'am. C'mon my bike's this way," He led her to the small parking lot near the bar and toward a shiny red motorcycle. Jun admired it for a minute, she liked motorcycles and had always wanted one but Long Feng wouldn't let her have one. Lu Ten saw her looking at it, "Yeah it's a pretty nice ride, took me six years to save up for though." He tossed her a helmet.

"Six years? Don't you Sozin kids get whatever you want when you want?" She said putting the helmet on and got on the back of the bike. She thanked God that she remembered to put on the boots that went a little above her knees since she was wearing a dress and everyone knows that you should always have your legs completely covered when riding a motorcycle.

Lu Ten straddled his seat and turned the keys in the ignition, "Not all Sozins are like that, you're thinking of my cousins. Mainly Azula, Zuko could care less about material stuff. My dad actually makes me work for the stuff I want."

The bike roared to life and Lu Ten peeled out of the tiny parking lot. He quickly worked his way up to sixty, the speed limit was forty five. Jun instinctively wrapped her arms around Lu Ten's abdomen so she wouldn't fall off. 'Hm nice set of muscles there,' She observed. As he revved the engine Jun smiled, she loved going fast and judging from the loud, happy yell he let out Lu Ten did too.

About twenty or so minutes later Lu Ten pulled into an alley next to a tea shop that was on the outskirts of Ember Estates section. Jun started to become wary, how stupid had she been to take a ride with someone from Ember. Then he got off the bike and started to walk away, noticing that she wasn't following behind him he turned halfway around to look at her and pointed forward, past him. "You coming in or are you going to sleep in the alley? 'Cause I wouldn't advise doing that, not the smartest idea."

Jun shook her head and started to walk behind him as he walked into the cafe called The Jasmine Dragon and a bell rang as they opened the door, the smell of tea and spice hung in the air. Inside there were a few tables with mismatched chairs that were now resting on top of the tables. In a corner of the room was a worn but squishy looking couch and armchair that sat around a low coffee table. The place was quiet now but you could hear the sound of dishes being washed from behind the counter in the back room. From that room a young voice that sounded annoyed called, "Read the sign, we're closed."

"It's just me and a friend Zuko, where's my dad?" Lu Ten yelled back as he pulled a couple chairs down from a small round table. He guestured for her to sit down and she did so as he took his jacket off and rolled up the sleeves of his red shirt.

A boy with a large scar on his eye emerged from the back room wiping his hands with a towel, "He went upstairs a bit ago." He paid no attention to Jun whatsoever, but started wiping down the counter. Jun wondered for a bit just how the boy got the scar; it had to be a pretty bad accident or something but she decided it would be rude to ask how he got it right now, and since she might have a chance at staying here it would be best to mind her manners.

"And has now returned. Done with partying for tonight Lu Ten? Ah who is this lovely young woman?" A short gray haired man with a matching beard said coming down the stairs near the back of the store.

"Dad this is Jun Shirshu, Jun this is my dad Iroh," Lu Ten said.

Iroh held out his hand and Jun took it, "Pleasure to meet you Miss Shirshu, my you have a strong handshake." Jun simply smiled and nodded at the old man.

"Anyway, Jun has a bit of a predicament. She lost her job and doesn't feel like she can go home, so can she crash here for a while?" Lu Ten asked as he went behind the counter and pulled out a couple of wine glasses and a bottle of the red liquid. Lu Ten poured the wine into the glasses and offered Jun a glass which she took.

"My son, if you trust her then it is alright with me, she can stay in the guest room upstairs," Iroh said while stroking his beard and smiling.

"Thank you, you don't know what this means. I will get a job as soon as possible and I will pay rent I swear," Jun said.

Iroh shook his head, "Nonsense. You are Lu Ten's friend and we do not charge friends for hospitality. And about the job, I believe we can help you out there as well. I've been needing a waitress around here for awhile now, someone to bring tea and coffee to the customers you see. It doesn't have to be permanent if you don't want, it can just be something short term."

She couldn't believe her good luck, a place and a job in less than five minutes! "Sounds good to me, thanks Mr. Sozin." She swirled her wine around in her glass before she finished it off.

"Call me Iroh, Lu Ten show our guest to her room," Iroh said as he started to walk back the counter to join the other boy.

"Okay pop," Lu Ten said, he walked over to Jun's seat and pulled her chair out for her. No one had ever done that for her before, he then looked at her with a huge smile on his face and said, "Come on this way."

She followed him as he went up the stairs and she hear the boy Zuko say to Iroh, "That's my room though." The old man responded with something that sounded like "It is not polite to let a lady sleep on the couch nephew. Besides, I believe you have a room at your father's house right? I'm sure Azula would enjoy your company at home." Jun had to contain her laughter as she heard the younger boy grumble at his uncle's remark while she ascended.

Once upstairs ,the stairwell led to a horizontal hallway at the landing, a smaller hallway wrapped around the railing and led into a small living room. The place had dusky gold walls and had a victorian feel to it. There was a family portrait on the wall as you walked up. Lu Ten looked like he was about ten and there was a pretty woman in the picture standing next to Iroh whom Jun had not seen yet. Then she vaguely remembered that Lu Ten's mom had died a while ago, maybe while they were freshmen.

She stopped staring at the picture when she realized her guide was leaving without her. Lu Ten led her to the horizontal hallway and into one of the three rooms, "Okay here's your place. It's not much but it doesn't completely suck either."

"Thanks I don't really deserve your niceness," Jun said. She hated how sugar coated every word she had spoken in the last ten minutes had sounded, but again she needed to impress in order to stay welcome.

"Pssh whatever," and he plopped down on the bed.

Jun wandered around the small room. It had a window but the view was only of the dirty back alley. The room was simple, it's walls were a deep red and there were no pictures on them, there was a twin bed in one corner with gold covers that had an elaborate design on them, next to it was an equally small nightstand. An oak dresser was opposite the bed and next to the closet.

Having fully explored the room she sat down next to Lu Ten on the bed. Then a thought occured to her, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Lu Ten shrugged, "Do I need a reason? You looked like you needed help so I helped; it's what I do, it's how I was raised." Jun looked at him skeptically, thinking of his family's reputation. He guess what she was thinking and quickly said, "You know not all of the Sozin's are alike. My uncle is in no way like my dad. My uncle has made a bad name for the family no matter how successful he is. My dad, Zuko and I really aren't all that bad, you'll see." He smiled.

"Yeah I guess so," Jun said then she remembered something very important. "Hey, Lu Ten? You wouldn't happen to have any spare clothes I could sleep in for tonight would you?"

"Oh yeah, right. I've got some old sweats you could use. Do you want to stop by your place tomorrow to get your stuff?" he asked getting to his feet.

"No, I'll just go pick up some stuff at a store before your dad needs me to work, I'll get the rest of my stuff Monday," Jun said. Long Feng didn't have to work on the weekends so going back to the foster home was definitely out of the question.

"If you're sure," Lu Ten said as he walked out of the room and down the hall. As he was leaving another thought occurred to Jun once again. She whipped out her phone and quickly found the contact labeled 'Jet'. She started to rapidly text the boy, "Won't be coming home, got a place don't tell Long Feng."

A few seconds after she sent it she recieved a reply from Jet. "Great! Where? When can I get there?"

Guilt consumed Jun and that normally didn't happen but she had a soft spot for her younger "brother". Jet would absolutely hate that she had gotten a place in Ember Estates not to mention with a Sozin, he had good enough reasons to hate it too. Jun answered back, "Sorry Jet, it's not safe for you. It's only till I can get some extra cash, then we can get a place of our own I promise. G'nite."

He sent a response "ok", that usually meant that he was pissed but would get over it eventually. If he hadn't replied at all that was usually a bad sign but he had so she wasn't going to worry about it. She did however worry about how the other kids were going to take her being gone. Jet, Sneers and Longshot could fend for themselves mostly but the younger kids like Bee and The Duke she was worried about. What if Long Feng tried to take his anger at her out on them again? The last time he had done that Longshot had ended up in the hospital overnight and Jet probably should have been there too. She buried her head in her hands as gruesome memories taunted her.

Lu Ten reappeared with a pair of old gym shorts and a large T-shirt. "Okay they're a little big, sorry about that." Then he saw he state of anguish and went to sit down next to her again. "Hey are you okay?"

Jun looked up to see his amber eyes filled with worry. "Yeah, just a headache. I had a couple beers before I came over here so it's probably just a hangover setting in, don't worry about it," she lied but Lu Ten's face relaxed. There lying was more like her, it was a small lie but still it was a good sign.

"Ah gotcha, you want an asprin or something?" he asked, believing the lie.

"No, usually I do better just sleeping it off. Thanks though, for everything," she said hoping he got the message. He did and got up from the bed.

"Eh don't mention it. Alright, 'night Jun," he said.

As he walked out and closed the door Jun thought to herself, "Maybe he's not like the others in his family." She smiled a little to herself secretly hoping that she was right.

* * *

Monday finally appeared as it usually does and Jet walked into the lunch room and spotted a certain brown haired girl dressed in a blue uniform eating by herself. Jet made his way over to her table and sat down across from her, "Hey Kat what's up?"

"Hi Jet, how are you?" she asked smiling showing off a perfect set of teeth. Jet liked girls with pretty smiles and this girl definitely had one.

"Not too bad, how was your weekend?" He asked as he started to unload his lunch.

"Pretty lame, I didn't really do much of anything. What about you?" she asked. She noticed the slight change in Jet's happy expression and questioned it, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing really it's just my foster sister didn't come home this weekend, and she kind of has a way with getting into trouble. I do too, but Jun's not as subtle as I am, usually she picks dumb stuff to do," he said giving her a wicked grin that made her blush slightly.

"Oh no, well I'm sure she'll be fine. I'm guessing she's a lot like you and you seem like you could fight your way out of a sticky situation pretty easily. Like that sleeper hold Toph almost nailed you with this morning; you dodged her right before it was too late. I could barely block any of the punches Suki threw at me today," Katara said still smiling that great smile while unwrapping her turkey sandwich.

"You just need some practice is all, if you want I could give you some lessons after school today. I don't have fencing practice and Piandao usually leaves the combat room open afterwards," Jet offered.

Katara's smile somehow got even bigger, "Really? That would be great! I don't have swim practice today either since varsity has a meet so that should work out."

'Hell yeah, alone time with the new girl. Pretty sweet, she's right about Jun too. Whatever shit she gets herself into Jun can get out of it,' Jet thought, 'Jun will be fine.' Then they were joined by Suki, Aang, Haru and Toph. Longshot, Smellerbee and Teo were in a different lunch.

"Hey dudes what's shakin'? Sugar Queen, where was your brother today at combat class?" Toph said sliding in next to Jet, Aang next to her and Suki and Haru were across from them. Teo rolled up to the end of the table.

Katara's once joyful expression turned to sadness and she answered the freshman girl with a serious tone, "He's not coming today he didn't feel well."

"What does he have?" Haru asked.

"He's not sick, it's just a week ago around this time Yue was still alive," Katara said quietly. A tear escaped and Jet put his hand on her shoulder. The others said nothing, not even Toph, they understood that right now words were not needed.

A few lunch tables down, Zuko watched the group dumbfounded while sitting at his own lonely table. What were a bunch of kids from mismatched areas doing talking together at the same table? Not only that but they seemed to be getting along with eachother too. Zuko's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a tray slamming down next to him. He looked up to see Azula's friend Mai standing next to him with her usual glum look.

"I've said hi to you about five times now, what is so interesting?" Mai asked while sitting down.

"Sorry, it's nothing" he said becoming very interested in his nasty looking cafeteria bought tuna sandwich. Mai didn't look as if she believed him but didn't push it, as Azula and Ty Lee sat down across from them. The female Sozin sibling noticing the same thing her brother had as she glared at the group.

"Well what do we have here? Some lower class freaks deciding to break the rules of society again? Oh and Kuruk is one of them, when will she learn to know her place?" Azula said with a devious look on her flawless face. She got up and started to walk toward them but her brother caught her by the wrist.

"Leave it Azula, Element is neutral ground; they're not breaking any rules as long as they're here," Zuko said, his amber eyes boring into hers. The next part he said in a whisper, "Dad's thugs can't back you up here." Azula reluctantly sat back down in her spot, she didn't like it when ZuZu was right or stood up to her; put those two together and you got one very pissed off Azula. As she seethed though, she got an idea. She whipped out her cell phone and sent a text message to her father. He might not be able to deal with what was going on now and here but he could had his waysand could get people to monitor the group to make sure they weren't planning anything that would upset the hierarchy and unseat the Ember society as most powerful. No that wouldn't happen, they had to be stopped.

* * *

Hah Azula's crazy! But we knew that, oh and I know I made Lu Ten a sophmore in college so he's not supposed to be older than twenty which is under the drinking age in America but I really don't think Iroh would care about that stuff too much, and Jun is Jun, enough said.

Anyway you know the drill: I beg for reviews and sometimes some of you really really nice readers actually review! How nice of you! Lol, it would be appreciated and I swear the more interesting stuff is coming, everything is in order now so exciting stuff can actually start happening YAY!!


	6. Chapter 6

Okay so I know I haven't updated in awhile but this chapter took a bit longer than the other ones. I own nothing! If I did Jet would be alive. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

Around the same time that Monday, an unfamiliar car whizzed through the quiet and calm subdivisions of Terra. Lu Ten only had classes till eleven that morning so he had offered to drive Jun to her old house and help her pack up. Over the weekend they had worked the same shifts at the cafe, he bussed tables while she brought coffee to the customers; he also occasionally flirted with her in small ways. Jun had even caught him staring at her with a weird look on his face from time to time only to turn away when he realized she had seen him. 'Aw how cute. Louie has a little crush,' Jun thought.

"I'm just saying that you can't be a smoker since you have shiny white teeth, it's impossible Lu," Jun said. She was sitting in the passenger seat of Iroh's Honda Civic. Dark sunglasses covered her eyes and the brown tank top she had bought over the weekend showed off her red spiral snake tattoo on her shoulder. Lu Ten hadn't been so shocked when he saw the body artwork, he wasn't even surprised when he saw a couple of faded pink scars she had on that same arm. Scars that looked like they once were bad enough to have stitches, Jun had always been a rough girl, it was probably from some cat fight she had started back in high school so he didn't think much of them.

"Whatever Jun, I'm telling you though white strips every night will work miracles," Lu Ten smiled, "I also don't light up as often as you do." He took his eyes off the road for a second shoot her a teasing look. She responded to him by flicking his ear, he winced giving her satisfaction.

Jun recognized the street he pulled into with it's neatly trimmed lawns and playsets in the back yards. At the end of this road was a somewhat larger house than the others, a two story one with a wrap around porch that seemed quiet on the outside but on the inside was a jungle. Her old home. "There, that's the place," she pointed at it, and Lu Ten slowed down and parked on the curb.

While getting out of the car, Jun saw Jet's ancient Datsun parked in the driveway. 'Shit, Jet skipped school. Guess I'll have to explain it to him now rather than not at all.'

"Nice place," Lu Ten said as they walked up the steps of the porch, Jun fished her keys out of her purse found the right one and unlocked the door.

"Are you kidding? This place is a total shit hole," her eyes widened as she stepped inside only to see a bald man with a black goatee and a sinister look on his face sitting on the steps of the staircase inside the house. Long Feng.

"Hello Jun, I'm glad to see you have returned unharmed. I was worried about you," Long Feng said sarcastically getting up from his spot on the stairs.

"Where's Jet?" Jun snarled at the man. "His car is here, what did you do to him?" Lu Ten stood still behind her looking tense, not knowing what to do.

"Jet is at school where he belongs, his car wouldn't start this morning so I told him to take mine today out of the kindness of my heart," Long Feng said his voice still dripping with venom as he advanced forward and tried to lay a hand on her shoulder but Jun shrugged away from it.

"Bull shit, you probably killed his engine yourself," she mumbled loud enough for her foster father to hear her. Long Feng's hand collided with her face and a red mark had formed across her face.

The bald man grabbed her by the hair with enough force that made her cry out and said, "You will not talk to me like that, you whore. I give you a place to stay free of rent, I give you food to eat each day and how do you repay me? Getting a job at that pit of disease and then dropping out of college, not part of the plan I had for you," Long Feng said, he raised his fist at her this time. Jun both raised her own hand in attempt to catch his fist before it made contact with her, and braced herself for the blow in case she wasn't quick enough. But the impact never happened; Lu Ten had somehow wedged himself between the two and caught Long Feng's fist and bent it backward and he let go of his hold on Jun. Lu Ten's amber eyes had narrowed and a his normally smiling mouth was turned down into a frown, he looked kind of dangerous.

"Now is that any way to treat a lady," Lu Ten growled and pushed Long Feng back into the stairs and pinned the older man down. "Apologize. Now." Both words were filled with fury.

Long Feng laughed and kicked Lu Ten in the abdomen, Jun had just enough time to step out of the way before Lu Ten went crashing into the wall next to the door. Long Feng got up and dusted himself off, "Who do you think you are exactly? Ordering me around like that, not a smart move my friend. I'm curious though, how much are you paying her to get in the sack with you? Whatever it is I'm sure you're paying way too much. She's not worth it."

Lu Ten sprung to his feet and made a roundhouse kick to Long Feng's face. The older man fell to his knees and barely had time to rub his injured face before Lu Ten grabbed him by his shirt collar and looked him directly in the eye. "I'm part of the Sozin family Mr. Laogai. That's right, the family that gives you protection and you can trust that if I ever hear of you laying a hand on her or you speak to Jun like that again, that protection will disappear got it?" Long Feng was breathing heavily, but nodded once at the angry young man.

"Good, now you're going to let me and Jun go pack up her stuff and she is never going to come back here and you will not go looking for her. This whole incident never happened right?" Lu Ten said, he still had his grip on Long Feng who nodded once more. "Alright, let's go Jun," Lu ten said finally letting go of the man. She stared at him in awe for a second and then slowly climbed the stairs Lu Ten following behind her.

"Okay, what was all of that back there? What "protection" has Long Feng been getting and since when are you deadly?" Jun whispered to a still furious looking Lu Ten.

"I'll explain back at my place, let's just get your stuff and go," he said robotically.

She led him into the room she shared with Smellerbee and quickly went through her drawers and closet and emptied their contents haphazardly into her suitcase. Lu Ten stood in the doorway silently while staring off into space, his brow was furrowed and his face was still twisted into an angry look when she finished. They walked back down the stairs, Lu Ten going in front of her and he held the door open for her when they got to the bottom.

Before she walked out the door, she took one last look at the man she had lived with since she was nine. He was standing against the wall that had a hole in it from when Jet was thrown into it. Now he didn't look as menacing as he used to, he wasn't making eye contact and Jun didn't care. Without a word she turned and walked out the door with Lu Ten following behind her again but he said something before he shut the door, "Remember what I said Mr. Laogai," and the door slammed behind him.

The car ride back to the Jasmine Dragon was silent though Lu Ten still looked furious, his hands were gripping the wheel so hard that his knuckles had turned white, but the second they got back into the tea shop Jun started rattling off questions.

"I want answers Sozin and I want them now. What kind of protection is Long Feng getting and why, for example," Jun said as she slammed the door behind her. Iroh heard them come in from the back room and walked in to discover what all the commotion was about. He saw the state both young adults were in and said, "What happened?" His look was directed at his son.

Lu Ten was quiet, pacing the room and running his fingers anxiously through his hair. He answered neither of their questions but glared at Jun and asked one of his own, "Why didn't you say Long Feng was your foster father?"

"It wasn't important and it isn't now, I don't see how it's your business any way. Now answer my question," Jun demanded. "What's Long Feng up to?"

Iroh stepped in at that point, "Why don't we continue this conversation upstairs. Lu Ten put the 'closed' sign on and lock the door, Miss Shirshu has a right to know what's going on." The gray haired man started up the stairs and Jun followed him. Lu Ten did as he was told and then followed the two up the stairs and into the living room. Iroh pulled the curtains and motioned for Jun to sit down on the couch. Iroh had settled himself in one of the large armchairs and Lu Ten had sat down in the other armchair. "That's more like it, now could you two fill me in a little before we continue anything else," Iroh said gesturing to his son.

Lu Ten sighed, "Long Feng Laogai is Jun's foster father and he was there this afternoon. While we were there he hit Jun and I told him if he tried it again his protection our family provides him would be cut off." Iroh nodded and then looked to Jun.

"I want to know just what he meant by that," Jun said.

Iroh looked over to Lu Ten who suddenly looked surprised, "Dad you're not actually thinking of telling her are you!?"

"Well Lu Ten she deserves to know, from what she's told us over the weekend she lived with this man for a long time and now that she is staying here, it is only fair that we fill her in. Now do you want to tell it or should I?" Iroh said calmly despite the uneasy vibe in the room.

Lu Ten didn't answer him but instead sank back into his chair and said, "The Sozins have been a successful business family for many decades, but in order to maintain our spot at the top we've taken certain precautions. When my grandfather Azulon first started the company he realized there were a few other corporations in town that posed a threat and that's when he got the idea to use gangs to take out the rival companies, the Raiders in other words were created. They were just what my grandfather wanted, stealthy and extremely deadly. They got every job done quickly and never left a hint of evidence that could be used against them.

"For a few years this worked out well, and then Azulon decided that he needed someone on the inside of the territories to let him know which companies were on the rise. In return these inside eyes would receive protection. Long Feng is one of the people that my uncle Ozai decided to be his insight on Terra's section once my grandfather stepped down and let him be the leader of Sozin Corp. Remember that grocery store that was burned down last week?" Jun nodded. "The owner was simply thinking about opening a few new stores in order to expand. Long Feng told Ozai about it and sent the Raiders to take care of it." Lu Ten finished.

The room was silent for a bit, Jun was absorbing the information that had been given to her. "So basically you guys are like the mafia or something," she said.

Lu Ten's face cracked a smile at that, "Yeah something like it."

"Now the question is, do you feel safe staying here Jun?" Iroh asked her.

Jun thought about it, she had just escaped a bad place and now here she was in the living room of Al Capone's brother. Did she feel safe here? Yeah of course, she could take care of herself. After living with Long Feng for thirteen years she should be able to, besides this sounded exciting and Jun didn't get to do a lot of exciting stuff very often. She looked between the two men in the room, Iroh and Lu Ten both looked at her waiting for her response, "Yeah I'm good here."

"Are you sure?" Lu Ten asked her seriously.

"Anywhere is better than back there," she said referring to her old home, he nodded in agreement.

"Well then, it is decided. Miss Shirshu will stay here as long as it's safe for her, and it would probably be good if you didn't mention any of this conversation to anyone," Iroh said looking at her as he got up from his seat. Jun nodded and with that Iroh said, "Good, well I have to run to the store to get a few things for dinner, you two re-open the store while I'm gone." The old man made his way back down the stairs leaving Lu Ten and Jun alone upstairs for now. After they heard the front door close a silence grew between them.

"Y'know I could have handled ol' Fengie on my own, you didn't have to step in," Jun said trying to break the silence that had settled.

Lu Ten smiled, "I know you could have, I don't doubt that at all. I guess he just riled me when he hit you and I have a temper so it was instinct to hit him." He got up and sat down next to her on the couch.

"Thanks though," Jun said quietly as she rubbed her arm.

Lu Ten didn't answer her but looked at her scarred arm, "He did that didn't he?" Her silence was enough of an answer for him, his anger was beginning to return as he remembered something else Long Feng had said. "What did he mean when he said you weren't worth it? Y'know when he said that I was just trying to get you to sleep with me," He almost didn't want to know the answer.

"He knows because he was my first, not my decision either," was the only response Jun gave him.

Lu Ten had expected her answer to be like that, but that didn't stop him from being angry about it. "I should go back there and rip his guts out myself." His fists were clenched and the dangerous look had returned.

"Hey that's my job, besides if you mess with him he'll just take his anger out on the other kids on something I did and that has been happening way too much recently. I appreciate it Lu and if it were anyone else I would agree with you but I think it's for the best if we just leave him be for now," Jun said staring into his eyes.

"He doesn't deserve that," Lu Ten said as he reached for her arm and traced one of the scars on it. That's when she realized just how close he was to her, she looked at him and he at her. Lu Ten's hand cupped her face and he slowly moved in and placed his lips softly on hers but the kiss was only brief; Lu Ten broke away and got up from the couch.

"I'm sorry, that was wrong of me given what you've been through today," he said in a low voice.

Jun planted a deeper kiss on his lips that didn't last any longer than the first, "No what's wrong it that you didn't kiss me like that." Not waiting for an answer she started toward the staircase and once she was halfway down called up to him, "Come on lazy ass! Your dad wants us to re-open remember?" Lu Ten did as she said and practically ran down the stairs, a smile on his face once again.

* * *

Katara aimed a few punches and kicked the punching bag, mimicking the combo Jet had just demonstrated for her. However when Jet kicked the bag it had swung back and forth for a while, when she kicked it the bad swung a couple inches back in forth. She had done this set over five times now and each time she had the same results.

"You're not breathing right, you've got to control your breathing or you're never going to win any fight. Take a breath with each swing you make," Jet said demonstrating once again the proper way to strike. This time though she could hear him exhale loudly with each punch. "There your turn," he said.

Katara took a deep breath and focused on her breathing this time as she struck the bag and when she had to deliver the final kick, the bag swung a little farther. It was very small progress but it made Katara beam and Jet couldn't help but smile in return. "That was better Kat! I think you're ready for some actual combat practice now," he said walking away from the punching bags and toward the cleared area. He turned to face her, she was still off in the corner, "You coming?" he asked.

"Are you sure I'm ready? I mean all I did was make the bag move a few inches," Katara said walking toward him.

"Yeah I think you are, fighting is the kind of thing you need to do in order to learn anyway," Jet said. He raised his arms in a defensive stance. "Now are we going to fight or what?" Katara gave him a quick nod and copied his stance. "Okay on the count of three, one...two...three!"

Jet aimed a kick at the side of her knee making it buckle and she stumbled a bit, he bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for her turn to strike. Katara recovered and aimed a series of punches toward his chest. Jet dodged them jumping to her side, he caught both of her arms and held them behind her back. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Come on Kat you're going to have to do better than that." And that she did, she used as much force as she could muster to flip him over her back. Jet was taken by surprise so he didn't have time to defend himself when she kneeled over him and pinned his arms to the floor.

"Good enough for you?" Katara teased, she was smiling again.

'Oh yeah,' Jet thought definitely not thinking about the fight for a quick second. "Not a chance," he said and he pulled his legs up and pushed them against her stomach. She released her hold on him and soon found herself pinned against the padded wall, Jet's face inches from hers. They were both panting now and their eyes were locked on each other's. Jet lowered his face to hers and Katara closed her eyes, but they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Suki stood in the doorway with a volleyball in the crook of her arm. "Not interrupting anything am I?" she said sweetly.

Jet let go of Katara's wrists, "No I was just showing Katara some moves."

Suki looked at the two, Jet looked perfectly fine but Katara's face had become bright red. "Uh huh, okay then." She dropped her bag to the floor and walked over to the table against the wall where a pair of gloves lay. She picked them up and put them on.

"Um actually I better get going, my Gran's probably here waiting for me. Bye Suki, and thanks Jet it helped a lot," Katara said gathering her things and making her way out of the room, she still looked embarrassed as she left.

"Any time," Jet yelled after her and smiled a crooked smile. He turned around to face Suki who had a serious expression on her face and her arms were crossed. "What's with you?" he asked.

"Leave Katara alone Jet," Suki said. "She's a nice girl and also it's against the rules for you to be doing what you were about to do to her." She brushed past him and made her way to the punching bags.

Jet followed behind her, "What are you getting at Suki?"

She hit the bag once, "Oh come on Jet, you know how you treat girls. You fool around with them a couple times and then it's over and you leave them broken-hearted. Like I said, Katara's nice so it would suck if you went and ruined her. Plus she's from the Southern District so you're really not supposed to even be thinking about getting with her." She kicked the bag and it swung slowly back and forth.

"Y'know Suki I really don't think it's any of your business who I'm interested in and you're a total hypocrite. Didn't you ask me just a few days ago to drive you to the cemetary to go talk to a guy who you've only talked to once. Not just any guy either, Sokka who was at the cemetery for the burial of his girlfriend. You have no right to talk to me like that," he yelled. He walked up to her and grabbed her wrists and shook her a little. Seeing the fear in her eyes made Jet realize what he was doing, he quickly let go of her wrists and his own eyes widened in shock, he was acting like Long Feng. He backed up from her and said, "Suki I am so sorry! I don't know what came over me."

Suki rubbed one of her wrists a bit, "It's okay, just don't do it again or I'll kick your ass." She gave him a small smile to reassure him, "And I'm sorry, you're right I am a hypocrite. I shouldn't have said what I did."

Jet shrugged, "You weren't totally out of line. I can be a jackass to girls. You were just looking out for the new girl." He smiled and sat down on the floor.

Suki started to stretch out her arms, "That's true but who knows maybe she'd be good for you. You never know." She threw a couple punches at one of the bags and grinned wider when the bag swung a good distance.

"Yeah maybe," Jet said sounding deep in thought. "Well I better get going, I'm going over to Haru's tonight. He said his mom's making some big dinner and he'll need help finishing it off. Can I chill at your place Thursday?" He grabbed his bag and slipped his sneakers on.

"Yeah sure, why the big dinner though," Suki asked. Haru's family usually liked to keep things simple and conserve what they had.

"I think he said something about the farm's products being imported to more places or something. Oh and I really am sorry about earlier," he said from the doorway.

"Eh don't worry about it," she said. "See ya tomorrow." He waved and disappeared out the door.

Suki turned her attention back to the bag but then suddenly didn't feel like practicing very much. She was hit by a thought, 'Sokka might need help with some make-up homework. He and I have a couple of the same teachers, maybe I should go over to his place and let him know what he missed.' Katara had given her their address and phone number as part of the phone tree in case class got cancelled, she could take a taxi to his house easily.

Sure it sounded kind of stalker-ish but she didn't really threw on a hoodie, picked up her stuff and began to walk out of the school and down the street toward the bank of taxis. She got in one, told the driver Sokka's address and they were off.

.:.:.:.

Suki walked up the stairs of the large building until she hit the fifth floor where she assumed apartment E12 would be since it hadn't been on any other floor, at least she hoped. She walked down the hall happily seeing the letter 'E' on the doors. She found the one numbered twelve and stood outside it with her hand raised to knock on the door and suddenly felt nervous. Anxiety was something new to Suki, all the facts that supported how crazy this idea was. She was about to turn around when the door opened. A man with shaggy brown hair that was graying stood in the entrance. His face looked tired, he had small wrinkles around his blue eyes and mouth.

He smiled a little and said, "Hello. Can I help you? Are you lost?" 'Yeah he definitely knows I'm not from around here,' Suki thought.

"Hi Mr. Kuruk, I'm Suki Kyoshi. I go to school with Sokka and have a couple classes with him, since he wasn't here today I figured I'd just drop off the books real quick so he could look at them," Suki explained in one quick breath.

Mr. Kuruk laughed a little, "That's very nice of you Suki. Why don't you come in, I'm not sure if he's up for visitors but I'll go check." Before Suki could say that that wouldn't be necessary the man had turned around and disappeared into a room down the hall she could see from the doorway. Something smelled really good and Katara danced out of another room with her iPod earphones in her ears.

The tan girl noticed Suki and quickly took the earphones out of her ears, "Suki hey! What are you doing here?"

"Miss Kyoshi has very nicely brought Sokka some books he can look over," Mr. Kuruk said reappearing from the room. Sokka followed behind him and Suki noticed that his hair was down from it's usual ponytail.

Sokka's face looked sad but his face brightened a little when he saw her, "Hey Suki. What's up?"

"Not much, I'm sorry about jumping in at a time like this but I thought you might like to get an early start on you homework. I promise I'll be out of here soon," Suki said fishing through her book bag looking for the text books he would need.

"Oh don't worry about that, you're not barging in at all," Mr. Kuruk said.

"Nah you're okay, thanks for bringing the books by," Sokka said taking the books from her.

"No problem, well I'll get out of your way," she said making her way toward the door.

Sokka stopped her though, "Hey wait, do you like want to stay for dinner? We're havin' tacos."

She was quiet for a second, "Well if it's okay with everyone sure, I'd love to."

"Of course it's okay, are your parents going to need to know where you are though," Mr. Kuruk said.

Suki gasped quietly she had forgotten about telling her dad. He was probably ready to call the police to find out where she was. "Uh yeah I probably should do that," she laughed a nervous little laugh and pulled out her cell phone.

"Alright now you two, go help your Gran Gran set the table," Mr. Kuruk said.

Before he father picked up the phone Suki stage whispered, "Thank you for having me over Mr. Kuruk."

The older man smiled once again and replied, "Your welcome, any friend of my kids' is welcome here anytime. And you can call me Hakoda if you like," he said and turned around and walked into the small kitchen where it sounded like Katara and Sokka were arguing. Suki laughed silently when her father picked up the phone.

"Hey dad sorry I didn't call earlier. Listen I'm at a friend's house and they've invited me to eat dinner with them is that okay?...Alright I'll call when I'm about to leave...No no you don't have to pick me up, I'll be fine...Okay bye dad," she flipped the phone closed and walked into the room she had seen Sokka and Katara had walked into. Inside the room she saw Hakoda helping an elderly lady put chopped vegetables into bowls. Katara and her brother were sitting at the kitchen table. She was shaking her head at something Sokka had said and he was rolling his eyes.

However when he noticed Suki had walked in he turned his attention away from his argument, "Hey Suki we've got a seat for you right here." He gestured to the spot next to him, she went to sit down in it and Hakoda and the old lady took their spots at the heads of the table. The dinner went by quickly, Suki had expected them to be sorrowful and glum but really the family couldn't have sounded happier. Katara and her grandmother chatted away Katara's school day, she failed to mention the incident with Jet, and Sokka told as many bad jokes as he could which made Suki and Hakoda laugh. She explained a little about herself to them, like how she lived with her dad and that she was on the varsity volleyball team but nothing too personal.

After everyone had cleared their plates they moved into the living room and that's when Suki saw that it was almost half seven, thinking it was probably a good time to go she said, "Well thank you very much for letting me stay for dinner, it was delicious but I probably should be getting home now." She walked over to where she had dropped her bag and now slung it over her shoulder.

"It was a pleasure meeting you Suki, anyone who can beat my son so he doesn't get cocky is welcome any time. Did you drive here?" Hakoda asked pleasantly.

"No I took a cab, but I'll probably take either the bus or the subway home," she said. There was a moment of brief silence and the family's happy faces turned sad for a minute. Suki wondered what she had said and then she remembered; Yue had died probably about exactly a week ago on the subway.

Before she could apologize Sokka's face perked up a little and then he said, "Nah I'll drive you. Dad can I use your car?"

"Didn't you just say that you'd never be caught in the cruiser? You said that it would hurt your "street cred" and that you'd rather have to watch Katara practice her dancing over and over for three hours," Hakoda teased as he dangled the keys in Sokka's face. Katara snorted at her dad's remark as Sokka finally snatched the keys away from his father.

"I'll be back soon," Sokka yelled while he and Suki left the apartment.

While they were walking down the stairs Suki said, "You know, you really don't have to do this. I have a bus pass."

"I do a lot of things I don't have to do, annoy Katara, sleep in class while Mr. Bumi talks about historical stuff, prank call Coach Zhao saying it's Chan Maaka, the list goes on. Just 'cause I don't have to do them doesn't mean I'm not going to," he said with a smirk as they walked over to the elevator. Suki was mentally kicking herself for not noticing that before she climbed the five flights of stairs.

Sokka walked over to the garage part of the apartment when they got outside, found his dad's cruiser and the two got in. "Do you know how to get to Terra from here?" Suki asked while he was reversing.

"Uh yeah, it's the neighborhood right next to school right?" he said in a mocking tone.

Suki giggled, "Yeah stupid question."

"Hey for once it's not me saying the stupid stuff," Sokka said giving her a side glance as he drove out of the garage.

For a couple minutes they were both quiet, not awkwardly but comfortably. It had started to rain while they were stopped at a red light. "Hey um I'm sorry for coming by, I don't know if you wanted to be alone today or not," Suki said breaking the silence.

Sokka gave her a sad half smile, "Don't worry about it, you actually got my mind off of it for a while which is good." The light turned green and Sokka stepped on the gas, "So what's up with your mom?"

That was something Suki hadn't expected, "Excuse me?" She arched an eyebrow at him, she wasn't mad but she was just caught off guard by the question.

"What happened to your mom? You said it's just you and your dad so I was just wondering what had happened," Sokka said. Suki was silent while she tried to find the right words to explain her mother. "Hey if you don't want to answer then you don't have to," Sokka said becoming serious He knew how he acted when people asked about his mom, not exactly a topic he wanted to discuss and maybe Suki felt the same.

"No it's okay, I'm just trying to remember the story. When I was three one night my parents got into a fight, or at least that's what my dad says, it had been bad. My mom left to stay at a friend's place for the rest of the night. The next morning my dad felt terrible and called the friend asking for my mom, but the friend said that my mom had left early that morning. So my dad tried her cell and got no answer, he tried absolutely everyone he could think of but no one had heard from or seen my mom. A few days went by and they found her car abandoned on a highway outside of town. The police didn't think she had tried to skip town, her luggage was back at her friend's place and there was an 'I'm sorry' card for my dad on the passenger seat. We don't know what happened to her, my dad thinks that the Raiders had something to to with it but my guess is she was either murdered or she just decided to ditch the car and leave. She's the reason my dad enrolled me in mixed martial arts classes when I was old enough. He wanted to be sure that if I ever did end up in a situation like my mom, whatever her situation was, that I could fight my way out of it." Suki explained.

They were approaching Terra now, Suki had taken a couple breaks in the story trying to remember all the details. "Wow that's rough," Sokka said.

Suki shrugged, "I didn't know her all that well." They passed up Element Private and Suki pointed which road Sokka should turn onto now. Then she leaned back against the chair and laughed quietly.

Wondering what was so funny Sokka asked, "What?"

"I don't tell that story to anyone, the only ones who know it are Toph and Jet. I don't like telling it, I feel like a whiny little brat calling attention to herself," Suki said. ""Turn left here."

Sokka did as he was told, "Well I wouldn't call you whiny, but you definitely give off a bratty vibe," he teased and smiled a goofy smile at her.

Suki laughed at his joke. "Oh yeah that's me, total brat. My house is that third one," she said pointing to a small bungalow. Sokka pulled up next to the house and parked the car. In the window a man was looking out, waiting. She rolled her eyes and turned to Sokka, "Sorry, he's a worrier. Thanks for the ride," she said as she gathered her things.

As she opened the door and got out of the car Sokka leaned over and said to her, "Yeah no problem. Oh and Suki, thanks for coming over tonight."

She looked at him and said, "Your welcome, I'll see you tomorrow Sokka." She closed the door and walked up the steps to her house, he waited until he saw that she had got in until he drove off.

Once inside she dropped her bag on the floor and walked into the living room where her dad was sitting on the couch. He put the book he had been reading down when he heard he enter, "Hey kid how was school?"

"Same as usual, now why don't you ask the question you really want to ask?" Suki said playfully and stood in front of her dad.

He smiled at her, "You know me too well. Who's the guy?" 'Wow he could see it was a guy driving her home? Wasn't his vision supposed to get worse with age?' Suki wondered.

"His name is Sokka Kuruk, he and his sister are in my combat class along with a few other classes. He wasn't here today so I decided some of the books he'd need over to his place and his family invited me to stay for dinner," Suki explained calmly.

"Kuruk? The Southern District boy who's car was wrecked a couple weeks ago? Don't you think it might be dangerous to hang around him, that plus he's not from Terra?" her father asked.

She thought for a minute and then said, "Sokka's an okay guy. It's not like I'm hanging around anyone from Ember right?" Her dad nodded agreeing with her. She stretched and looked at the time, "Well I better go start homework. Later dad."

"Have fun," he said sarcastically as she grabbed her bag and climbed the stairs to her room. When she got to her room she collapsed on the dark green comforter on her bed and thought. 'What if my dad's right? What if it's not a good idea to hang around Sokka?' Then she thought of the boy's goofy smirk and all doubt had vanished, 'Nah. Besides, I don't break the rules enough anyway and Jet always says it's healthy to break a rule or two once in awhile.'

* * *

A couple subdivisions over, Long Feng sat at his kitchen table holding a half empty glass of scotch in one hand, once he had fed the brats dinner he had sent them all up to their rooms to do their homework. Jet of course was the one who would ask mockingly about the bruise that had formed on his face. "Did some old lady hit you with her purse or something?" the arrogant teen had said to him. At the time Long Feng almost let his temperature get the best of him and almost struck the boy, but remembering today's earlier instances decided against it. Jet had looked confused when Long Feng simply told him to get his ass up the stairs and surprisingly did as he was told for once.

Forgetting about Jet, the older man finally decided to scroll through the contacts in his phone until he found the one he was looking for. He hit the number and waited for the person to pick up on the other line.

"Yeah it's Long Feng Ozai, someone in your family took one of my kids from my house just now...No I don't know who but I know it wasn't Zuko he didn't have a scar...Good as long as you have it handled I don't care what you do, don't let Jun get hurt though, I would like to discipline her in my own way. Oh and Ozai, Jet was over at the Dow farm today. Apparently the Dows are planning on expanding...My pleasure sir, any time."

Long Feng snapped the phone shut and wore an evil grin on his face, 'Jun will be punished for not listening to me oh yes, and what a fitting punishment it shall be."

* * *

Wow that was long! Probably the longest chapter I've ever written. Okay well now here comes your part where you hit the button at the bottom that says review and make me very happy! ^_^


	7. Chapter 7

Okay so this chapter isn't as long as the other one, for those of you who like longer chapters I am sorry, and for those of you who prefer shorter chapters your welcome. = ]

* * *

A few weeks later...

It was starting to get darker earlier outside since winter was starting. Haru looked through the window of the kitchen out into the fields of the farm to see that they were completely bare as far as snow went. Haru had never seen snow in his life except for on television and in movies. Most of the kids who lived in Element hadn't, there were a few kids from the Districts though who had cabins far away where it did snow and they could ski and sled there. Sokka and Katara had been talking excitedly today in combat class about how they might be going up to one their grandparents owned for Christmas this year and he was a bit jealous. When he was little his family went camping in the mountains. It was warm there and you could do lots of rock climbing whick Haru loved to do especially in the canyons.

Haru's mother Teah saw him looking out the window again so she guessed at what he could be thinking about and said, "You know since we're importing more products we'll have more money that we can put forward to vacations. Maybe next year we can go up to the mountains again and rent a cabin there for a few weeks."

Haru's face brightened when she said that, "Really? Wouldn't you and dad rather go to the seaside or something though?"

His mother leaned over to grab the chicken she had been cooking out of the oven, "Not really, I prefer the canyons and your father doesn't really enjoy swimming. Besides, he and I have always talked about wanting to go back to the mountains. I'll talk to him and see what he thinks about it." She smiled as she began to chop up some carrots to go with their dinner.

Haru walked over to his mom and gave her a hug, "Thank you,"

She giggled, "I'm not promising anything but your welcome, now would you set the table for me?" She asked as she scraped the chopped carrots into a bowl with some other cooked vegetables. Haru walked over to the cabinet and took out three plates and went to place them in their spots on the table. As he did so a gust of cold air entered the house followed by the sound of loud footsteps. Haru's father Tyro had come in from working outside.

"Something smells delicious," the older man said grabbing a couple dishes from the counter and placing them on the table. Teah following behind him with the chicken. They all sat down in their seats and were about to dig in when they heard a noise. It sounded like some of the livestock were in distress.

Tyro groaned and got up from his spot, now what is wrong with them?" He looked out the window and gasped at what he saw.

Teah and Haru also got up from their chairs to see what was the matter. Teah put a hand on her husband's shoulder, "Tyro what's wr- oh no!" The barn was going up in flames.

Tyro basically ran back out the door with Haru following behind him. The older man shouted behind him, "Teah! Call the fire department quick!" She was already dialing. Haru went to a closet they had in the front of the house and pulled out a fire extinguisher. His father was already out the door and Haru was running after him. The fire had spread to the fields but Haru kept running. His father had already reached the barn and was working on getting the animals out. Haru jumped in after him and was met by a blast of heat, the roof of the barn was almost completely burned and animals were running everywhere. Haru started to spray the extinguisher's fluid on nearby flames while Tyro tried to usher out two reluctant cows, some of the smaller livestock had run out when the doors had opened leaving the few horses and many cows behind.

Haru looked outside for a minute to see his mom's weak attempt at trying to put out the fire near the fields, she was using a garden hose to douse the flames. Far off he could faintly hear the sound of sirens and a couple of their few neighbors rushing with their own extinguishers and buckets of water.

His focus was broken by the loud sound of something snapping, he looked up and saw that one of the rafters had broken and was falling directly toward him. Quickly he rolled to the side, the sound of the impact had scared the horses and made them whinny loudly. Haru decided that he wasn't getting very far with putting out the fire so it would be better to try and rescue the animals. He ran over to two of the horses, opened their stalls and grabbed their reigns. He pulled on the leather straps hard to get the large animals to move, they got the message and began to canter out of the barn. Fire fighters ran past him as he exited the burning barn. He saw that Jet and Toph were helping with the fields and Suki was helping his mother gather the animals.

Behind him his father and a few other men came out of the barn with the rest of the animals and led them over to Teah and Suki. By this point it seemed the fire department had things under control with the barn so Haru went to help out Toph and Jet. He grabbed a bucket that had been filled and even though he knew deep down that the crops couldn't be saved, he threw the water on the fire.

While doing so he asked, "How did you guys get here so fast? How did you know?"

"You can see the smoke from my place and me being curious decided to check out the damage. What happened anyway, did your cow tip over a lantern or something?" Toph said as she grabbed another bucket.

"No idea," he said simply taking a bucket from Longshot who had appeared out of the shadows. Haru took a quick look for Smellerbee, she was over with Suki trying to herd a few ducks into a pen. He turned to Jet, "What about you?"

Jet groaned as he picked up four buckets and tossed the water, "Heard the sirens while I was on my way home from work."

Haru nodded, "Thanks guys."

"Don't mention it," They all three said at once. The flames from the barn were almost completely out so a few of the firemen had come to help out with the fields. One of the firefighters had said to the teens to back up, they weren't needed right now. Doing as they were told they dispersed. Haru looked around for his parents; eventually he found them, his father had an arm around his mother who's eyes were threatening to spill tears. He went to stand beside them and watch the last of the flames go out.

How could this have happened? Things were just getting good for his family, and as the last flame went out so did the dream Haru had of the mountains.

* * *

Zuko slammed the morning paper down on the kitchen table where Azula and Ozai sat. For once his father was home for the weekend and Zuko had a feeling he knew why.

"Careful ZuZu you might strain yourself," Azula said as she took a sip from her black coffee and grinned evilly.

Zuko ignored her comment and turned to his father who was already dressed for work in his usual black suit and red tie. Zuko pointed angrily at the picture on the front page of the Haru Dow's farm burning down. He only said one word as he stared fiercely at his father, "Why?"

Ozai didn't look up from his planner and acted as if he hadn't heard his son. Zuko infuriated, slammed a fist down on the cherry wood of the table. Ozai slowly picked his head up and looked at his son whit an annoyed expression on his face. "Fine Zuko, what has upset you so greatly that you decided it necessary to interrupt my buisness planning?"

Zuko shoved the paper in front of his father and said, "Why did you send the Raiders on the Dow farm? You own hospitals and businesses and you create steel, what possibly compelled you to set their farm on fire?"

Ozai pushed the paper out of his way and drained the last of his coffee. He got up from his seat and picked up his briefcase, "You forget Zuko that I also own a bit of stock in some farms that could have been threatened by the Dow family. What do you care anyway? The Dows are from Terra not Ember."

His father brushed past him and began to walk out of the house, not really caring about his son's response. Zuko followed his father out to the garage, he stopped in front of Ozai before he could get into his new Mercedes. "I care because it's wrong to do that. The Dows don't have a lot of money and they work hard. We have a lot and own barely any stock in agriculture, there was no point to it," Zuko said.

Ozai sighed, "Zuko this topic really is boring me. I have a conference in a half hour that I have to prep for and can't be troubled with your ridiculous concerns over people who don't matter." He pushed Zuko out of the way and put his things in the car and sat down in the driver's seat.

Zuko leaned over and spoke through the window as his father started the ignition, "Mom would have cared about this. Does she matter?"

Ozai froze for a second then turned his head sharply to look at his son. He thrust a finger in the boy's face and his eyes were filled with anger, "I told you never to mention her. Unless you want another scar, I'd remember to not to bring her up again."

"Why? Because you don't want to remember that someone actually saw the real you and wasn't impressed? That someone saw that beneath all the cruelty and nice suits and realized that you're actually a pathetic narcissist?" Zuko snapped.

Ozai grabbed the collar of Zuko's shirt and pulled his upper half into the car. "I don't want you here by the time I get back tonight. I don't care where you go, just get out!" He snarled and released Zuko. He then peeled out of the driveway and sped off down the road.

'Gladly,' Zuko thought and turned around to walk back into the house but saw Azula standing in the doorway with a very smug look on her face. "I was wondering how long it would take him to finally get fed up with you," she said while examining her perfectly rounded nails.

"Shut it Azula," Zuko said walking past her and started to make his way up to his room.

Azula followed behind him and once they were on the stairs Azula spoke up, "You know father really didn't care that they were expanding their little farm at first. But when I explained that Haru Dow has been hanging out with people he shouldn't and that his family business was starting to grow in and out of the city, he agreed with me that our little group of rebels needed to be punished, and he saw the Dows as a perfect way to get rid of two problems. They are a warning to the group of misfits at school and to other businesses."

Zuko froze in his tracks, "You told dad to do this?!" Azula shrugged as a smirk formed on her face. Zuko just stared and said, "You're insane. Dad is too, I'm getting out of here before it spreads to me." He continued up the stairs and into his room.

Zuko's room had red walls just like Azula's. Unlike Azula's Zuko had taped a few posters up on the walls, it was also messy where hers was always pristine. Zuko grabbed a large duffel bag out of his closet and started to throw his things into it. He grabbed a couple books off of his bookshelf and stopped at a picture on the top shelf. He was about six in the picture and was sitting in his mother's lap under one of the shade trees in her gardens. She was squinting and Zuko couldn't tell whether it was from the sun or her smile. Zuko took the picture out of the frame, folded it in half and placed it in his back pocket.

Now having everything he neede he walked out of his room and down the grand staircase. Azula was sprawled out on the couch flipping through a book, she didn't bother to look up and Zuko didn't bother to say goodbye as he put his black coat on and walked out the door. When he got outside, Mai was making her way up to the door clad in a black peacoat with a matching wool hat and gray fingerless gloves. She wore a rare smile and said, "Hey Zuko." The smile quickly faded when she saw that he was carrying luggage. In her raspy voice she asked, "What's going on?"

Zuko didn't answer her question but said, "How can you be friends with her? How can anyone stand to be in the same room with her?" He walked past her and opened the door to the back seat of his jaguar and threw his bag in the back.

Mai followed behind him and turned him to face her when she sternly asked, "What happened? Why do you have luggage?" Mai knew Zuko liked to spend the night at his uncle's often but he never brought anything more than an overnight bag.

Zuko leaned against the frame of the car. "I said some stuff to my dad which he deserved and he got upset. I've been evicted, Azula can fill you in on the details if her highness feels it necessary," He said the last part sarcastically.

Mai nodded apparently understanding and didn't press anything more. Between Azula's two friends he didn't mind Mai as much as Ty Lee, Mai didn't press things iif she felt that you didn't feel like talking where Ty Lee would pester you until you spilled or found a way to escape her.

He calmed down a bit and said, "I'll see you later Mai." He got in the car, started it and backed out of the drive way. Mai watched him go until she couldn't see his car anymore before she she walked back into the house.

She stood in the doorway with the door open and looked back for a minute. Azula barked out from her spot on the couch, "Mai don't just stand there, you're late and you're letting the cold in." Mai closed the door but as she did so she thought back to Zuko's question, _'Why are you friends with her?' _and now that she thought about it Mai couldn't think of a reason why at all.

* * *

Zuko pulled in behind the Jasmine Dragon building as Iroh had told him when he explained his situation on the phone. His uncle had understood and told him Jun would let him in through the back so Zuko could quickly walk up the stairs without drawing too much attention from the customers. Jun was in fact standing out in the cold with a large jacket wrapped around her.

"Hey emo boy, move your ass and get up here; mine's almost frozen," she said gruffly. Zuko knew by now that that was just Jun's way of either showing affection or saying hello.

"Coming Jun and hello to you too," he said as he climbed the four concrete steps up to the stoop where she stood.

"Yeah yeah lovely weather we're having and all that polite shit just get in the building," she said as they walked into the back room. Jun slid off her coat and hung it on the rack.

Though it was freezing outside the raven haired woman decided it was still necessary to wear a tank top. Zuko noted the Nicorette patch she wore underneath her tattoo and gave a small smile. A few weeks ago she had caught a bad case of pnemonia, it was so bad that she had to stay in the hospital for a few days. While there the doctor said that the reason why it was so bad for her was because of the smoking and if she continued the habit and got pneumonia again, the situation may be just as uncomfortable or even more.

Upon hearing that Iroh decided it was time for both her and Lu Ten to quit. Surprisingly Jun didn't put up much of a fight, Zuko remembered that she absolutely hated being sick, so maybe that was why she decided to kick the habit, but ever since she quit she had been a little bit more irritable than usual. Lu Ten didn't need the patch or the gum to help him quit, he just quit it cold turkey and for that Jun hated him...only a little though.

Jun hollered into the other room, "Hey boss the next stray you're adopting is here."

"I thought I told Ms. Wu that I wasn't taking any of her cats," Iroh walked in with an empty pot of tea and upon seeing Zuko he understood Jun's comment but decided to ignore it and embraced his nephew who stood stiffly. "You are always welcome here nephew, why don't you go put your things up in Lu Ten's room now and set up the spare bed. Then you can come down and bus tables," Iroh said warmly. Zuko nodded and quickly walked out of the room and disappeared up the stairs lugging his bag behind him. Iroh turned to Jun then and said, "Now you on the other hand can get back to working the register."

She gave him a mock salute and said, "Yes sir." The old man smiled and Jun exited and went to stand behind the counter. She took orders for a few people and brought some others their coffee or tea. She kept this up for about fifteen minutes before things finally slowed down and Lu Ten came to sit at one of the empty bar stools with his usual smile on his face.

"So how's the working girl doing?" he asked.

"Eh it's boring right now. I haven't had to yell at any gross old guys for staring down my shirt yet but the day is still early," she said leaning over the counter on her elbows.

"Well I would gladly do that for you if it would make you feel better," he said in a sly whisper.

She playfully punched him in the arm and laughed. At the same time Zuko came down the stairs and disappeared into the kitchen only to reappear seconds later with an empty dish bin. Jun couldn't help but stare at the scar that took up half the boy's face. Today her curiosity got the better of her and she just had to ask. She leaned closer to Lu Ten and asked, "Hey Lu? What happened to Zuko's face?"

Lu Ten's face fell a little and his voice dropped to barely above a whisper, "Well I guess you were going to find out sooner or later." His voice dropped down a little and said, "You know my uncle isn't the best guy in the world. After he and my aunt Ursa got divorced, Zuko got a bit depressed and a little more outspoken. He didn't really like the settlement of it either, you see Ozai somehow had gotten custody of my cousins and a restraining order against Ursa, I don't know if Azula cared too much but Zuko took it pretty rough.

That night Zuko said he wanted to stay with his mom instead of Ozai and that he hated living with him. My uncle has always had a bit of a temper and I guess some other stuff was said but my uncle grabbed Zuko and slammed his face into one of the burners that was lit on the stove. Zuko was in the burn unit of the hospital for almost two months, when the hospital asked what happened Ozai simply told them that Zuko had merely had an accident in the kitchen. Since he owned the hospital and probably threatened a few of it's doctors and lawyers, no questions were asked."

Jun looked at the boy who was clearing the dishes at table four now and felt that she could relate. Zuko she had decided wasn't half bad, almost okay in fact. Over the past couple months she had heard him complain about his dad and how twisted he was. To tell the truth, he reminded her a bit of Jet, both were rebellious and outspoken and had some authority issues. Though Jet seemed to have those issues with every one but herself and his teacher Piandao, Zuko seemed to only have those problems with his father. Thinking about Jet made her feel guilty though, she had been ignoring his calls and texts that asked where she was. She didn't want to but she still didn't know how to break the news to him about her new home.

She was soon distracted from her thoughts of Jet when a slew of customers walked in from the cold and up to the counter. The four of them worked hard taking short breaks until closing time later that night. After closing time she Lu Ten and Zuko all sat at one of the small tables drinking the rest of the last pot of tea. Iroh soon joined them after he had finished putting away the rest of the dishes.

Iroh pulled up another chair and sat down across from Zuko. The old man took a sip from his cup of tea and then asked, "Alright Zuko now why exactly have you been exiled from my brother's home?"

Zuko took a deep breath and began to explain, "The Dow family farm was set on fire last night because my dad sent the Raiders on them." Zuko had been filled in long ago that Jun knew all about the mechanics of his family's business methods so he didn't worry about explaining in front of her. "But there are two reasons for why this time: one the Dows were expanding their imports and two, my sister seems to think that their son Haru has been hanging out with the "wrong people" and decided to let my father know about it."

"I could definitely see where she was going with that though. For the past couple months there's been a group of kids from different territories hanging out with eachother at school which is neutral ground so Azula really has no right to complain. She's upset 'cause now other students are starting to do the same," Zuko continued.

"Do you know which kids?" Jun asked quickly.

Zuko looked at her questioningly for a second, why would she want to know? "Yeah, Haru of course, the Kuruk kids, Suki Kyoshi, three freshmen; two kids from Terra and one from Central, and Jet Durden."

Jun groaned and leaned back in her chair. She mumbled, "Of course he would."

The three men look confused, Lu Ten spoke up first. "Uh Jun? Who are you talkin' about?"

The long haired woman sighed again, "Jet is kind of like my younger brother, he showed up at Long Feng's a couple years after I had been there. Unfortunately I rubbed off on him, Jet likes to do things that will get him into trouble. Normally I'm okay with this but right now I'm not there to tell him to quit while he's ahead. It's just like him to decide to break the rules and hang around people not from Terra."

"Says the girl from Terra who has been living in Ember for the past two months," Lu Ten said earning him another punch on the arm.

Jun did smile but then said, "I just wish I could make sure he's not doing anything stupid dangerous. Dangerous is fine but if he's blatantly asking for the Raiders to come get him we have a problem."

They sat in silence until Zuko spoke, "Jet's a junior like me, I don't have him in any classes this year but he's in a morning combat class that's pretty open. I could enroll if you want and try to figure out if he's up to anything. I've been wanting to figure out those guys anyway, they're all in that class."

"He won't talk to you since you're from Ember, at least not about anything important for that reason. But you can try to eavesdrop on him, Jet gets sloppy and brags about it if he's up to anything big," Jun said.

"No problem," Zuko said while nodding.

"Piandao is a friend of mine from my Pai Sho games on Tuesdays. He teaches that class and he owes me a favor, I'll give him a call and get you enrolled in class on Monday," Iroh said standing up and walking to the back room.

Jun looked at Zuko and gave him a half smile. "Thanks emo boy. You're not gonna like go and and tell your dad about any of this right?" she said a bit sarcastically at the end.

"Your welcome Jun," Zuko said getting up from his spot, ignoring her other comment. "I'm going to head upstairs and get some sleep. Later guys."

"Night," Lu Ten and Jun said in unison as Zuko ran up the stairs once again.

Jun was thankful for Zuko trying to watch out for Jet but that didn't stop her from worrying. Had it been anyone else she wouldn't have cared but Jet really was her family along with all of the other kids still at Long Feng's and she would always watch their backs. Lu Ten was good at reading emotions and even though Jun's face still maintained her normal devious look, he saw the twinge of worry in her face.

He covered on of her hands with his and when she looked at him in bewilderment he just smirked and said, "I'm sure he's fine Jun. And even if he is in trouble, if he's anything like you he'll be able to get out of it just fine okay?"

Jun nodded, Lu Ten was right; Jet could handle himself. He wasn't the little eight year old who showed up in the room next to hers after his parents died. He didn't just kick rocks at the kids from Ember anymore, he could take care of himself. Jet knew how to fight now and he was good at it too. More than good, fighting was natural to him and maybe that's what worried her the most.

* * *

Okay I know the plot isn't all too interesting yet but please to my few readers, stay interested!

Yeah I took some artistic license with Haru's mom's name, I don't think she had a name but if she did let me know and I'll change it to make it right. Oh and for Jet's last name I couldn't think of anything relating to the show so I drew from other sources. In the book/movie 'Fight Club' there's a character named Tyler Durden who I think is a lot like Jet so I borrowed the last name.

So please review, it boosts my self-esteem lol.


	8. Chapter 8

Hey guys! This chapter might be a little longer than the last, I'm going to try to fit as much in as I possibly can without it seeming rushed.

Also this is a reply to my very nice anonymous reviewer lalyk! I appreciate both that you've been reading this all along, and your support on this story's genre. I figured we needed some more serious themed AU stories (I've got a soft spot for them to! ^_^). There's this awesome completed AU story by Nikkel that you should read if you haven't yet, it's called 'I Will Posses Your Heart'. It should be in my favorites if you're interested.

Also a thank you to my other reviewer el bano, thanks for reviewing guys!! You both get a virtual cookie now!

Oh if I have any spelling/grammar errors let me know and I'll fix them!

* * *

Zuko sprinted across the parking lot as fast as he could cursing his cousin the whole way. The night before, Zuko had set the alarm clock for six am. Lu Ten went to bed later and reset it for nine so Zuko woke up to Iroh shaking him awake saying he had to get to school in ten minutes, school was twenty minutes away on a good day. So after kicking a sleeping Lu Ten in the gut, Zuko grabbed the stuff he would need for school and sped off in his car.

Now he was almost ten minutes late as he rushed into the building and toward the combat room. He stopped before walking into the doorway, he heard happy cheering coming from the room and wondered if anyone would notice when he walked in. Would they stop cheering and stare or just ignore him completely. 'Well here goes,' Zuko thought and entered the room quietly and observed.

A group of students had formed a large circle around two other students who were sparring at the moment. One was a girl with dark brown hair that was in a long braid, he recognized her as Katara Kuruk, and the other was tall boy with short black hair who Zuko was pretty sure was in his grade. Piandao stood outside the circle observing their every move, he stood tall with his hands folded behind his back and his eyes very focused on the match.

"Go for his legs Katara!" a tan boy screamed from his spot. "Girlie girl Slice!," the boy continued to shout.

Katara dodged one of her opponents blows but had enough time to shout back at her supporter, "Sokka do me a favor."

"Yeah lil' sis?" Sokka said looking proud as his sister blocked on of her opponent's attacks.

"Be quiet!" she said with a smile. Her brother pouted but did as he was jumped at the boy and with one fluid motion she circled her arm and with the side of her hand she aimed her blow at the boy's side. Zuko was surprised to see the boy grip his side, the hit didn't look like it had been forceful, but he was even more surprised when Katara got down low and swung a leg around her on the ground. The black haired boy didn't see the move coming in enough time to prepare him self and because of that, his opponents move kicked his legs out from under him and he ended up up the ground. Before he could get up she moved to pin his arms down.

The boy tapped the mat twice and Katara got off of him and offered him a hand to help him up. He took it and she smiled and said, "Good round Longshot." The boy simply nodded at her, not looking too upset about losing and then the two bowed to each other. Longshot sat down in between a tired looking Haru and Sokka while Katara went to sit down next to a freshman boy and a boy with shaggy brown hair, Jet. Jet gave Katara a smile and a congratulatory high five before his gaze fell on Zuko.

The brown haired boy seemed to be the only one who had noticed Zuko's arrival. Piandao might have but he didn't let on as he said, "Very good match you two. Longshot, you're punches and kicks are incredibly better now, but you have to not hesitate so much." Longshot nodded again at his teacher who then turned his attention to Katara, "Miss Kuruk excellent job I must say, especially for a new student."

"Thank you Mr. Piandao," she said brightly.

Piandao clapped his hands together and said, "Alright, Aang and Toph you two are up next. Have at it."

"No disrespect sir, but I think there's a lost student at your door," Jet said still looking at Zuko with a strange look on his face.

Piandao turned to face the doorway where Zuko stood, "Mr. Sozin you're late." He beckoned the boy to come closer.

Zuko moved forward and said, "I'm sorry. My alarm didn't go off."

"Wow, you mean you don't have the butler wake you up?" Jet said in mock amazement. There were a few muted laughs at his joke but Zuko could see that Jet's classmates weren't as brave to make comments about the scarred corporate prince...well ex prince but they didn't know that yet.

"That's enough Jet," the tan teacher said sternly. Jet listened and Piandao gave his attention back to Zuko, "I understand don't let it happen again. I do not like tardiness, but what's done is done. Now do you have any experience in combat?"

Zuko nodded, "I've been a black belt in Karate for five years, did some Tae Kwon Do, and a little boxing a couple years ago."

Piandao rubbed his chin not seeming too impressed with Zuko's experience though Sokka's and a couple others' eyes widened in amazement, "Well then, we might just have to see a demonstration from you. Aang, Toph, you two don't mind waiting a little longer for your critique do you?"

Aang, the freshman next to Katara shook his head and said, "Not at all." at the same time a short, black haired girl, Toph looked aggravated and groaned, "Heck yes I mind!"

Piandao ignored her protest and said, "Good that settles that. Now who of my more experienced students wants to go up against Zuko? Suki?" He looked at a girl with reddish brown hair, she was in Zuko's AP English class, and shook his head, "No you already went today. Let's see who else is there?" He ignored Toph's eagerly waving raised hand.

Jet stood up and stretched out an arm, "I'll take him Teach. I haven't gone yet today anyway." Toph lowered her hand sadly and Aang patted her sympathetically on the back.

Piandao looked uneasy about it but sighed and said, "Very well. Zuko Sozin vs. Jet Durden, opponents take the mat. No shoes or weapons in this match." His eyes were focused on Jet as he spoke, "No eye gouging, or kidney shots."

"Yeah yeah, we know the rules. Just get on with it, I wanna see how Twinkletoes here can do now," Toph said.

"Miss Bei Fong, if you speak out again with out permission then I will have to give you demerits and you will recieve a detention are we clear?" Piandao said with a smile. Toph folded her arms over her chest and blew her bangs out of her face. "Good, now if you want the fight to end tap the floor twice and your oppenent will let go of his hold on you," the teacher said putting emphasis on the last part.

Zuko nodded as he slipped his shoes off and entered the circle. Suki got up and walked over to a table that held tape and gloves. She grabbed two pairs of gloves and threw one pair to Jet and the other to Zuko. Both boys strapped on the gloves and began to size the other up. Jet knew about Zuko's history in fighting, but the young Sozin didn't know much of anything about the other boy's experience except that Piandao seemed to thing he was pretty good.

"Bow to each other," Piandao said and the to boys did so. They both took their stances and the room was completely silent as Piandao barked, "Begin."

Jet jumped in the air and aimed a roundhouse kick at Zuko's face; the black haired boy avoided the move successfully and quickly grabbed the other boy's leg and pulled him down to the ground. Zuko moved to put Jet's leg over his shoulder in attempt to get him into a complicated hold but the brown haired boy who still had control of his arms, aimed a punch at Zuko's face hitting the scarred side. Zuko let go of him and Jet sprung back to his feet and started to attack his opponent with a series of punches that connected to Zuko's abdomen. While Zuko was distracted by trying to defend his torso, Jet took the opportunity to gather as much force as he could and kick the side of Zuko's knee. The scarred boy groaned and as he did so Jet repeated this move on the other leg.

Zuko doubled over and the brown haired boy, moving as fast as lightning got behind the other boy and hooked his arms underneath Zuko's armpits and placed his hands at the back of the black haired boy's head. Jet leaned down and whispered in Zuko's ear, "This is great. Now everyone can see the true side of the Ember people, weak failures."

That made Zuko snap. He somehow managed to flip Jet over himself and while doing so Jet released his hold on Zuko. The angry black haired boy pinned Jet's arms to the ground stared directly at him. Deep brown eyes met angry amber ones, Zuko said nothing but watched as Jet struggled underneath his hold. Jet tried to knee the black haired boy in the face but Zuko rolled to the side and escaped. Both of them got to their feet and lunged at one another; Jet went for the upper body and Zuko aimed lower. He somewhat copied Jet's move only instead of hitting the knee, Zuko hit Jet's side.

Jet flinched and his face screwed up with pain. It was only for a second and you would have probably missed it if you had blinked but Jet's competitor had seen it. Zuko stood looking confused, had the hit really been that hard? He didn't think he had used an awful lot of force. Finally having seen enough Piandao stepped in between the two, "I'm going to call this match a draw. Very impressive Zuko, not many people can take on Jet and last more than two minutes. I think we have seen enough though."

The crowd let out a loud breath and all except for Sokka and Toph were quiet. Sokka shouted out, "Aw come on Mister P! We never get to see exciting stuff like that!" The tan boy threw his arms up in the air and a huge satisfied grin was on his face. "It was basically EPIC!"

Then Toph joined in, "Yeah Snoozles is right, wow that sounds weird." Sokka frowned at that comment but the short girl continued anyway, "most of the time we just do warm up stuff the whole class period. Don't get me wrong, critique week is usually awesome, but that was pure entertainment!"

Piandao laughed at the two, "Well I'm sure we will be able to see more of Mr. Durden and Mr. Sozin's skills later." He looked up at the clock in the corner of the room, "Tell you what; we're going to finish early today."

Toph groaned in protest, Piandao narrowed his eyes at her and she just threw up her hands and innocently said, "Hey you said if I speak out of turn again. You never said anything about groaning."

The teacher shook his head dissmissively and ignored the girl. "Anyway, hit the lockers every one. I think we've had enough excitement for one day. I have to go talk to Dr. Jeong Jeong but I will be back so no shennanigins." With that Piandao walked out of the room and disappeared down the hall. The students began to rise to their feet after his departure. Zuko watched their interactions. Aang was talking animatedly to Toph who was still sulking about not getting to fight, and Katara who seemed distracted by something.

Suki had stood up and was looking down at Sokka who had collapsed on the floor, "C'mon get up! I didn't hit you that hard." She offered him a hand which he took and helped pull him up to his feet. The two walked off toward the locker rooms talking and laughing but separated into the correct rooms.

Longshot, Haru and Jet were standing off on their own. Jet and Haru were engaged in conversation while Longshot listened. The three moved on to the locker room but as they walked Zuko heard Jet say, "No way! All of your crops were burned? Along with no place for the animals? That sucks man, what are you guys going to do?" Haru shrugged in response and Zuko felt a wave of guilt wash over him.

The room had cleared out almost. Katara and Toph walked off together into the girls' locker room leaving Aang alone with Zuko. The bristly haired boy looked a little nervous but walked up to Zuko and said, "So you wanna go in first or should I?" The younger boy smiled a weak smile, Zuko was surprised by his kindness but appreciated it. He motioned for the smaller boy to go in first.

Aang began to lead the way but stopped just before he walked in the door. He turned to Zuko, "I'm Aang Yangchen by the way." Without waiting for a response the small boy darted into the room. Zuko took a deep breath and followed in after him.

Inside the other boys were talking about their weekends until Zuko walked in. It got quiet and Zuko felt their eyes watch him as he found a locker a bit farther away from them. He turned to look at them and gave a head nod. Aang nodded back and began to change into his uniform, the other boys didn't seem to know what to do. Longshot who was already almost done changing gave a very small nod. Sokka gave a half smile and Haru's face was blank. This was when Zuko realized that Jet wasn't with them, where had he gone? He had walked in with them hadn't he?

Feeling that it wasn't his place to ask, Zuko just began to change like the others. Soon his question was answered when Jet appeared fully clothed from the bathroom part of the room. Zuko didn't make eye contact with him and surprisingly Jet didn't either; he simply walked past the scarred boy, put his work out clothes in a locker which he locked, grabbed his book bag and left the room with his blazer slung over his shoulder.

The boys looked after him and waited till they heard the door shut until they spoke again. Sokka let out a held in breath as he tied his tie, "Man I was sure he was gonna hit you."

It took Zuko a second to realize that the District boy was talking to him, "Yeah me too."

Sokka shrugged, "I haven't know the guy long enough to figure out the way his head works. What I do know though is that he has a short fuse and an extreme hate for Ember people."

"I noticed," Zuko said buttoning up his shirt. Silence fell over the boys then and one by one they left. At least Longshot, Aang and Sokka did. Haru took a little bit longer than them getting ready.

Zuko stared at the long haired boy who was re-tying his tie for what seemed to be the fifth time. The Sozin felt awkward, should he say something? Should he say nothing? Zuko thought about how these kids had all been talking and hanging around eachother, at some point they must have felt the way he did right now. Uncertain. He had wanted to know why they were rebelling this way, or at least how it felt so Zuko decided to speak up. "You're Haru right?"

The brown haired boy looked at him and nodded, looking slightly confused. Zuko continued on, "I heard what happened to your family in the paper and I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Now Haru looked even more confused, "Why? You didn't do it did you?"

"No, but I'm from the area of people who did do it. I don't like the ways of my part of town, and I guess I just wanted to apologize on their behalf." Zuko stated.

Haru looked pensive for a minute then he spoke, "Thanks. That means a lot, really it does. Apology accepted, even though you didn't do anything." He held out his had for the other boy to shake. Zuko took it and smiled. 'If you knew how much it is my fault you wouldn't be shaking my hand. At least my family's fault any way.'

The two finished changing and walked outside where music was playing from the stereo and the other teens were talking away. Jet glared when he saw Zuko emerge with Haru who seemed perfectly comfortable. Jet looked like he wanted to walk away from the conversation he was having with Suki and Sokka and walk right up to Zuko so they could finish what they started but for some reason he didn't.

Piandao walked back into the room and ushered them all out saying it was almost time for homeroom when in acutality homeroom didn't start for another fifteen or twenty minutes. The students did as he asked though and walked out of the room. Aang and Toph walked away from Katara and started in the direction of the freshmen hallway. Katara began to walk with Jet and Longshot, a smile was on her face as Jet joked with her about something, but in her eyes Zuko saw worry.

Sokka glared at Jet and Zuko heard Suki teasing him about being an overprotective big brother. Haru walked along Zuko's side surprisingly neither spoke but they didn't have to, it was one of those comfortable silences people have. As they passed Sokka's locker where both he and Suki were talking away, Haru waved. Suki smiled back and Sokka waved back. The two juniors noticed Haru's companion, Suki looked a little bewildered but smiled at Zuko too, and Sokka smiled and said, "Hey dude! 'Sup?"

Zuko didn't answer but just nodded at the two and continued on his way to his locker. He was surprised at how quickly it seemed most of them had accepted him. He thought it would have taken longer, but Zuko realized that he didn't really care. He never really had friends of his own, he had hung around with Lu Ten and Azula and her friends but that was about it. Now it seemed that he might have a chance finally have some of his own.

Zuko's momentary happiness was darkened when he remembered his real purpose for joining Combat class. He had to figure out if Jet was up to anything. Though he was on what seemed to be good terms with the others, he knew becoming friendly with Jet was going to be hard. So far though, Zuko had never backed down from a challenge.

* * *

Katara sat in her first hour Biology class completely distracted, and was staring off into space. Usually the subject had her full attention but today she was worried about her friend Jet. He had flinched in the fight and even though Katara had only known him for a short time, she knew for a fact that it took a lot for Jet to feel pain and took even more for him to show it. She worried if Long Feng had anything to do with it. Jet had let her in on his little secret of his home life a few weeks ago after one of their tutoring sessions, as Jet liked to call them in the combat room. Knowing what she did, she wondered if he had been injured by his foster father again and if so how bad was it this time?

Her trance was broken by the sound of two girls gossiping. Both girls were in red uniforms, Azula Sozin and Ty Lee Chang. The brown haired girl eagarly whispered to Azula, "Mai told me that Zuko's not living at your house anymore? Why didn't you tell me when I came over on Saturday?"

Azula's pen was speeding across her notebook taking notes and she answered, "I didn't think it was such a big deal. It was bound to happen anyway, why do you care?"

Ty Lee whipped out a bottle of pink nail polish and started to coat her nails, "I don't know, I was just interested I guess. So what did he do to make your dad so angry?"

Azula's pen stopped briefly, "He said some things that my father didn't like and brought up _her._" The pen was speeding away again. The two girls now had Katara's attention, 'Zuko was kicked out of his home? That's so sad, I mean I wouldn't want to live with Azula either but maybe it's still his family. It must hurt a little anyway. And who is 'her' that Azula is talking about?'

"Oh okay, I get it. Do you think he's going to go looking for her?" Ty Lee asked, making sure not to drip any of the bright liquid onto her desk.

"He can't legally. It's not allowed, in my opinion they deserve each other, if it would get him to be quiet about her then I'd let him," Azula said simply.

Ty Lee looked at her finished nails that were glistening and she twisted the bottle top back on, "He really misses her doesn't he?" The young Sozin didn't respond. "Do you ever miss her?"

"Of course not Ty Lee! Now stop talking and let me take notes," Azula hissed. Ty lee sank back into her chair and Katara glared at the black haired girl. She wondered how someone could be so heartless, she spoke as if she were happy about Zuko not being home. Granted he was a Sozin, Katara felt sympathy for him, he didn't seem that bad. As she looked at Azula she noticed one very small splotch of water on the black haired girl's notebook but Katara blinked and it was gone. Had Azula been crying? Katara couldn't believe it, normally Azula only showed pride and sometimes anger but never sadness. 'Maybe Azula is more human than we give her credit for," Katara thought.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the dismissal bell and as she knelt down on the floor to gather her books, the corporate princess walked by and made her book bag hit Katara's head. Katara dropped her books as a result and Azula laughed, "Try not to be so clumsy Kuruk, you don't want to draw attention to yourself." And as she walked away, all of Katara's feelings of sympathy towards the Sozin girl vanished.

* * *

Zuko grumbled as he made began to make the long walk home. His car was gone from the parking lot and he had a pretty good idea of who had taken it away. Apparently other than kicking Zuko out, Ozai had also decided to repossess the black jaguar. As mentioned earlier, Zuko hated the cold and it was at most probably about twenty degrees out so he was particularly miffed at his father's timing.

He rounded the corner as he left the school's grounds and started to walk in the the direction of the subway, which would mean having to walk through Terra for a couple minutes before hitting neutral ground. He was in his school uniform so he would stick out unfortunately, he hoped that he didn't run into any of Terra's gangs. Though Ember was more notorious for their criminals they weren't the only part of town that had their issues. The Districts also had their rebels but not as many as Terra did, Central had none. Zuko really wasn't worried about any of the wannabe fighters but there was a particular group he didn't feel like negotiating with today.

A few years ago, Ozai had entrusted Long Feng to make his own group of "enforcers". This gang was called the Dai Li which mostly helped out the Raider's and wouldn't harm anyone from Ember but every once in a while there would be a rogue member who joined only to get close enough to harm those from Ember. Zuko hoped today he wouldn't run into one of them, he probably could take them but he wasn't exactly up for a fight at the moment.

He passed by an alley where he heard shouting, "Get off of me!" He peeked in to see two giant men surrounding two small girls wearing Element uniform skirts with their green blazers buttoned tight.

"Boulder! Leave Bee alone, this is between me and you," Zuko thought he recognized the voice and took a closer look at the speaker. Black short hair and bangs, it was Toph.

"The Bandit has cheated the Boulder. The Boulder wants the money that righfully belongs to him," the man with long black hair said, "Give the Boulder what is his and he will let the Bandit's friend go." The other girl who had short brown hair and looked something like a younger Jet squirmed under the man's grip, trying to get away.

Toph dropped her bag and cracked her knuckles, "Alright you want a rematch? Come and get it numb skull, I'll just kick your butt again," Toph said sounding a bit cocky. She clenched her fists and motioned for the giant man to come closer. The long haired man grinned and lunged at her, his fist ready to crush her face in. The small girl easily dodged under the punch and slipped through the man's legs and punched him in the back. The man groaned, Toph had obviously hit a pressure point and laughed at his misery.

"Had enough Neanderthal?" Toph asked and spit at the ground.

"No one makes a fool out of The Boulder!" he snarled.

Toph simply laughed at him, "Dude you seriously have to stop referring to yourself in the third person if you want anyone to take you seriously." With that The Boulder picked her up by her blazer's collar and hoisted her into the air. "Hey! No fair! Put me down!" she yelled.

"Haha, not so funny now are you? The Boulder will put the Bandit down once she pays him what is his," the man said.

"Put her down!" Zuko said stepping into the alleyway. All four heads snapped to look in his direction.

The Boulder scowled at him, "This is none of your business stranger. This is between The Boulder and the Bandit, so get out!"

Zuko only stepped closer and dropped his bag, "I'm not leaving until you let her go."

The Boulder looked closer at the young man and noticed the color of the tie that was poking out. "You are from Ember, this isn't your land. Besides what do you care about a shrimpy cheat from Terra?"

Zuko's fists clenched, "I'm going to tell you one more time to put her down."

The Boulder laughed, "or you'll do what?" Toph was kicking away in the man's hold, finally the Boulder grew annoyed with it and slammed her small body against the wall, "Stop that now!"

The man felt a tap on his shoulder and stupidly turned to see who it was. Zuko punched him right between the eyes, the man let go of Toph who landed on her feet and watched Zuko with wide eyes. As the Boulder clutched his face Zuko grabbed one of his arms and twisted it behind the man's back and slammed the man's face into the wall. He then said, "You are going to leave these two alone now, you aren't going to threaten either one again understand?" He twisted the man's arms harder, The Boulder groaned, "Yes the Boulder understands."

Zuko let go of his hold, "Good now get out." The other man let go of the brown haired girl and the three students watched as the men left the alley. Toph walked up to stand next to Zuko and let out a low whistle, "Dang you are badass aren't you?"

She didn't see but Zuko let a half smile cross his face before picking up his bag and beginning to leave. He stopped when he heard a raspy voice say, "Hey." He turned around to see that the brown haired girl was now next to Toph. She looked at him and asked, "Why did you do that? I thought you guys were supposed to hate us?" she said.

Zuko shrugged, "It looked like you guys needed some help."

The girl nodded and in her raspy voice said, "Thanks."

"Your welcome," Zuko said and turned to Toph, "How much do you owe him?"

"Pfft, I don't owe him anything. I beat him in a fight match fair and square; he's just a sore loser," Toph said. "Oh and thanks for backing me up there Sparky, not that I needed it you know."

'Sparky?' Zuko thought, 'Is that my nickname or something? I don't get it.' He nodded at the two girls and began to walk out of the alley where he come face to face with a wide-eyed Jet who's face went immediately stone hard when he saw Zuko.

"Well I thought there was enough trouble when I saw Boulder and Hippo running out of here yellin' about Toph but now I see there's an even bigger problem. What are you doin' here Sozin, this isn't your territory." The brown haired boy folded his arms against his chest waiting for Zuko's response. Just as he was about to say he was just passing through, the girls spoke up.

"He's cool Jet, leave him alone," Toph said.

"Yeah he helped us out and scared off those goons," the brown haired girl said. She took a step forward and looked up at Jet, "Really it's okay."

"Smellerbee look at him! He's from Ember, he's not cool. Remember what his people did to you!?" Jet shouted in the girl's face.

"He didn't kill my family Jet and he saved me and Toph, it's all okay. Let's just go home," Smellerbee said firmly pulling on his arm.

Jet tore his gaze away from the girls and glared at Zuko, "This doesn't change anything between us. But...I guess I should thank you for helping out my sister." Jet mumbled the last part.

"I know, and no problem," Zuko said quietly.

Jet turned and placed an arm around Smellerbee's shoulder's protectively, "Okay let's go home."

Zuko didn't watch to see them leave but put the hood of his jacket up and walked down the sidewalk when he was cut off by Toph. She stood in front of him and said, "Y'know I don't think you're so bad. Kinda quiet but not bad."

"Um thanks," Zuko said.

"Toph are you coming?" Smellerbee's voice yelled from behind them

"Yeah yeah hold on a sec," she yelled back at Smellerbee and Jet and smiled at Zuko. "See ya tomorrow Sparky." Before he could say goodbye Toph was gone leaving Zuko standing on the sidewalk alone. He waited a few minutes reflecting on what had just happened, he had saved two Terra girls, got a thank you from Jet and a nickname that he didn't really seem to mind all that much. Zuko was confused that was for sure as he walked to the subway got on and waited for his stop. When he finally got home and walked in through the door he was met by Jun rushing past him with a try filled with steaming cappuccinos.

"Hey Emo, what took you so long?" she said as she placed the sugary drinks in front of their owners.

He followed her to the back room where she dropped the tray in the sink with the other dishes that needed to be washed. Zuko pushed his hood down and said, "My car got repoed by my dad so I had to walk and take the subway."

Jun laughed, "You're dad's a prick."

"Yeah like I didn't know that." He picked up a sponge and started rinsing off the dirty dishes.

He noticed Jun's hands twitching out of the corner of his eye, they had been doing that since she quit smoking. She moved one hand to scratch a spot on her head and she asked, "So did you find out what Jet's up to yet?"

Zuko smirked, "No but I fought him today, that was fun."

Jun arched an eyebrow and being intrigued asked, "Oh really? Who won?"

"No one, Piandao called it off before there could be a winner. I helped his sister out of a sticky situation and he kind of thanked me for that," he said putting away a stack of dried tea cups.

Jun stiffened, "What did Bee get into?"

"Nothing, it was this girl Toph's problem really. Your sister was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, she's fine though," Zuko said and saw the woman next to him relax.

"Well that's good. I better go place some more orders, keep trying to figure out Jet okay? It might not seem like it but he's gotta be up to something," Jun said as she walked out to her spot behind the cash register.

Before she got too far away he said, "I will, don't worry Jun."

"Yeah I know," Jun said as she took her spot. 'But I can't help it.' She shook off her worried expression as some customers approached the counter and tried to forget about her surgot brother and his issues.

* * *

Alright, I re-wrote this and edited it so many times I lost count and I'm still not sure if I like it. I'm pretty sure the Zuko vs. Boulder fight was pretty lame but I really wanted to get this chapter out soon. I was having writer's block with it and that's partially why this chapter is so late for which I am very sorry! Also it's been hard for me to get enough time on the computer without people looking over my shoulder the whole time. Anyway reviews make me happy!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing but, I would like to thank Demeter for reviewing! I'm glad you think I have everyone in character, I was worried about Sokka for a bit but the reassurance helps a lot!

_Flashbacks are in italics._

* * *

Toph was walking at a fast pace down the hall and towards the cafeteria. Lunch was almost half over and she was cursing her French teacher Madame Hama for keeping her late, she fell asleep in all her other classes and none of those teachers seemed to care ,'but no the old lady just couldn't let me be. She's not helping my being vertically challenged at all! Didn't anyone ever tell her that sleep is good for growth?' Toph slowed down and stopped her mental pity party when she saw a boy with black shaggy hair sitting in the empty hallway eating his lunch.

"Okay Sparky you wanna tell me why you're sitting in an empty hall all by yourself, not gonna lie that's kind of sad," Toph teased.

Zuko didn't look up from his sandwich, "Guess I'm not that social." Toph rolled her eyes, today was Friday so news had circulated the school about the Sozin boy being rejected by his father. She also had a good feeling that was why he wasn't sitting with the other Ember kids today or for the rest of the week for that matter.

"Well today you are, come on get your stuff and follow me. You can sit at my table and don't worry about Jet he's all goo goo over Sugar Queen that he probably wouldn't even notice you," she said

Zuko had to laugh a little at that one over the past week he had realized that Jet did seem to have a thing for Katara but when he told Jun about it she rolled her eyes and said, "Jet has a thing for anything in a skirt." Whether he had a crush on Katara or not, Zuko highly doubted that the Terra boy wouldn't notice him sitting at his lunch table. He was about to turn down Toph's offer but then he remembered his promise to Jun and sitting at Jet's table would probably be a great way to find out if Jet was up to anything.

"Okay if you insist," he said getting up to his feet. Toph looked a little surprised that it had been that easy but quickly shook that feeling off and grinned.

"Good, now let's go before there's absolutely no time left for me to eat," Toph said taking the lead as the walked toward the cafeteria in silence.

Zuko let Toph go first when the got to the lunch room and opened the door for her, she didn't say thank you but he didn't care, and he followed her to an already crowded table. The petite black haired girl plopped herself down next to Teo and announced to the whole table, "Listen up dudes, Sparky here is going to be eating with us today and any other day he wants and no ones going to give him any trouble about it got it?"

Zuko knew the announcement was really only meant for one person, Jet. Every one else seemed fine except for one boy who had a tooth pick sticking out of his mouth seemed to want to say something but decided against it when Katara and Haru both shot him a glare.

Zuko laughed inwardly at this, the other kids in the combat class didn't mind Zuko at all and Jet hated that. Haru had even chosen at his own will to be the corporate prince's partner for combat this week. Zuko had made the numbers uneven so now Piandao would have to spar with someone each day, Jet had dragged a tired and slightly angry Smellerbee into class Tuesday morning trying to convince Piandao to let her in. The master had turned the boy down saying that the only reason he had let Zuko in so soon to finals was that he had heard that the boy had experience in fighting before. He said that Smellerbee could join after the Christmas break when finals were over, which had made Jet very angry but not as angry as the small brown haired girl who looked like she could have murdered her brother right there and have done just fine of doing it without any fighting lessons.

"Sparky? Are you listening?" Toph's voice said breaking Zuko's thoughts. Everyone was staring at him making him feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Uh sorry I spaced out," Zuko said.

"Fine I will repeat myself," Toph said in mock annoyance, "My parents are out of town this weekend so starting at five o'clock tonight I am totally free. Meaning I'm having a party at my house tonight starting at six and going to whenever and I have found it necessary to invite you."

Zuko was shocked, no one had willingly invited him to a party since Lu Ten got yelled at for letting a fourteen year old at a party where there was alcohol, his cousin was eighteen and it was his unofficial graduation party. "Uh sure I'll go, I'm going to have to see if my uncle will let me off work though." Though Zuko knew the gray old man would be more than delighted to let him have the night off to go to a party although Zuko's intentions weren't to have fun but to figure out more about how these guys got along and what made them want to break society rules.

"You have a job? Funny I thought the Sozins didn't need to work for what they want," Jet said and everyone ignored his statement thought Katara elbowed him in the ribs.

"Great here's my address for you guys who haven't been to my house before," Toph threw out some scraps of paper that Aang, Sokka, Zuko and Teo all took. '7373 Willow Tree Lane, it's the big house you can't miss it. If you do you are a supreme idiot,' read the message written in Toph's messy scrawl.

"Why aren't you free until five? School gets out at three," Aang asked.

Suki started to laugh as Toph turned bright red. The laughing junior started to say, "It's because she has-"

"Suki you will shut up right now if you value your life," Toph said, her bangs covering her face.

"Oh come on Toph they're going to find out sooner or later anyway, why not just tell them?" Jet said smirking for what seemed to be the first time in ages.

Toph groaned, "Fine. Ivegotstupidcottillionclassesevr'yfridayafterschoolokay?" she half mumbled.

Sokka was grinning from ear to ear, "I'm sorry Toph what was that?"

"I've got cotillion classes every Friday after school, it's lame and shut up about it. It hurts my reputation," Toph said and Katara and Sokka both burst out laughing and even Aang couldn't hold in his laughter. "Yeah yeah, go on laugh at the girl who just invited you to her house for an awesome party," Toph grumbled.

"Sorry Toph we just never would have expected it from you," Katara said between laughs.

"It's not like I like them, my mom forces me to go," the black haired girl whined.

"Oh sure Toph, don't try to hide it we all know you secretly want to be a princess when you grow up," Sokka joked as the bell rang and people got up from their spots. The short girl lunged at him, fists flying but was caught by Haru before she could do any damage.

"Okay I'm going to put you down and remember Zhao is watching so you can't start a fight here. Especially not with someone outside your area," Haru said and everyone's eyes flickered to the front of the room where the evil gym teacher stood glaring at the group. Toph relaxed and nodded, she walked out with Aang and Teo on either side of her.

Haru waited for Zuko instead of walking with Jet and Longshot. "So you're really going to Toph's party then? Not that you shouldn't or anything, you just don't seem like the party type," Haru said as they strolled out of the room.

"Yeah it should be fun," Zuko said smirking as he watched Jet's retreating form in front of them. Little did he know that three pairs of eyes were watching him leave the room.

"Wow Azula. It looks like Zuko has made some new friends," Ty Lee said in a chipper tone.

"That it does Ty Lee, though they're no one important. None of them are from Ember, which is somewhat intriguing," Azula said with the same wild look she had the night they trashed Sokka's car.

"So what if he wants to be friends with them, he's none of your concern anymore remember?" Mai drawled out as the trio of Ember girls walked out of the room.

"Mai he is still part of my family and although the rest of this school has gone insane and forgotten the rules our city was built on, any member of my family will not whether they've been ex-communicated or not," Azula said, watching her brother's figure as he listened to something that Haru Dow was telling him. "I think we should keep a close eye on Zuzu, normally he doesn't make an effort to be social and I want to know why he's deciding to do so now." Ty Lee nodded and Mai's face was set in a frown but eventually gave a single nod after breaking under Azula's glare.

"Good, be at my house no later than four thirty tonight and wear something suitable. We're going out to-," Azula started to say but Mai beat her to it, "Dante's we know. We'll be there." Azula looked a bit insulted, no one had ever interrupted her before but she was having a good day and decided to let this time go and she spun on her heel and left her two friends behind.

Mai and Ty Lee watched as she left and once again Mai was feeling the odd twinge of annoyance toward the younger girl as well as the need to tell her so. The feeling diminished slightly throughout the day but at the very end as she walked out to her own car Mai still felt that someone neede to tell Azula off and it might just be her who would do it.

* * *

Toph walked through the iron wrought gates of her family's home and practically skipped up the walkway that led to her front door. No parents meant freedom, it meant getting to pig out on all the food her parents wouldn't let her eat while wearing her sweats, blasting her music through the whole house, staying up all hours of the night, and getting to slide down the halls and on the stair banisters. She closed the door and yelled, "Yo, Yao! I'm home!"

A somewhat elderly man appeared from one of the hallways, he was the Bei Fong's butler and Toph's favorite out of the three workers her family had. He let her get away with stuff like playing video games before she went to bed, and sneak her in ice cream and cookies. The other two were gossipy maids that Toph despised but it was fun to play tricks on them. Her parents had given them the weekend off but Yao had voluteered to stay instead of having Toph shipped off to Joo Dee's for the weekend.

"Hello Miss Toph, how was your day?" Yao asked smiling, making the wrinkles around his eyes more prominent.

"Eh, not totally horrible. Cotillion was its usual snore-fest, school not so much though; I totally kicked Aang's butt today in combat class," she said happily. She dropped her bag on the floor and threw her blazer on over it. She scratched her head and asked, "Do you know what time it is?"

Yao pulled out his gold pocket watch, "It is a quarter to six, I have already ordered a few pizza's to be delivered and I went to the grocery store to stock up on junk food. I bought the dvd's you wanted as well, they are up in your room."

Toph gave the man a hug, he was pretty much the only person she ever gave hugs to willingly, "Yao did I ever tell you that you rock?"

The old man laughed, "Once or twice I believe. Now if I were you I would run upstairs and go get changed before your guests arrive." He bent down to pick up her book bag and jacket but Toph grabbed them from him. "I've got it, I can't have you breaking a hip or something. There'd be absolutely no one interesting here then," she said and then ran up the stairs. Yao smiled, it was good to see her happy while she was inside the house and it didn't happen often.

Toph got to her room on the second floor and walked inside it. Her room was large and usually messy but she had cleaned it up herself just for the occasion, she had a large bed that had a fluffy comforter which was dark green, a flat screen TV and a bunch of video game systems hooked up to it. A wooden book case held several dvd's consisting mainly of action and horror, next to it was a desk with a Mac computer and where a bunch of her cd's were scattered. Toph walked to the walk in closet, and picked out her clothes, baggy cargo kakhi shorts a yellow t-shirt with green short sleeves and lastly she grabbed a black skater hat. She didn't pick out any socks because she preferred to go barefoot most of the time.

When she was dressed she got the cd's she had burned that morning for the party and ran to the staircase but stopped at the top. She decided to slide down the banister and yelled happily as she did so. Once she got to the bottom she saw that she already had some visitors, Teo and Aang were talking with Yao when she got off the banister. "Hey dudes what's up?" she said.

"Not much," Teo said.

"Hey Toph, how was cotillion lessons?" Aang asked politely. Toph rolled her eyes and all three of the guys laughed. Just as she was about to pull down Aang's ski hat with the blue arrow on it, the doorbell rang and Yao opened it. Jet, Smellerbee, Longshot and Suki walked in and Sokka, Katara and Haru were close behind. "Hey guys come on in, pizza should be here soon and looks like Sparky's the only one we're waiting for."

"That is if he decides he's brave enough to show," Jet said.

"He is, he'll be here," Toph said smirking at him.

"Oh yeah? How do you know?" Jet challenged.

"Because he's right behind you?" Zuko's voice said from behind Jet. "I'm not late am I?"

"No you're fine. Okay so now that everyone's here let's go chill out in the basement. Call us when the pizza gets here okay Yao?" Toph called over her shoulder and led the others down the stairs. "Yes Miss Toph," Yao said with a small bow.

Sokka's eyes were bugged out as he took in the majestic basement. He had been impressed when he walked in the door and saw the the size of the staircase and master kitchen through one of the halls but now he was seriously considering asking Toph to adopt him. The room was bigger than his apartment! There were cream carpeted floors, and a couch big enough to seat at least ten people and still have room which faced a sixty inch wide flat screen TV. Sokka could see that she had a Wii hooked up to the flat screen as well as ps3 and an Xbox. To the right there was bar with a bunch of champagne and wine glasses behind it. Off in one corner there was an air hockey table along with a couple pinball machines.

"Toph, how do you ever leave home?! This place is awesome!" Sokka cried as he jumped onto the couch.

"It's pretty easy when your dad's a workaholic and you have your mom who's gone off menapause meds telling you not to touch anything you'd want to take off whenever you could too. I hardly get to play this stuff, except when Yao lets me sneak downstairs to bring some of it up to my room. It's like the pool we have outside, it's just for show. I barely know how to swim." Toph said.

Sokka's jaw dropped, "That is SO sad!"

"Yeah yeah whatever," Toph said, and then she turned on the Wii and grabbing a controller. "Who's brave enough to see if they can beat me at boxing?" she challenged.

"I'll take you up on that, but just so you know I've been practicing," Teo said catching the controller that Toph threw at him.

"Bring it on dude," Toph said and the two began their match while the rest of the crowd watched. Jet sat at one end of the couch with Katara by his side and Zuko sat at the opposite side next to Haru with Sokka and Suki in between. Smellerbee and Longshot had gone off to play air hockey and after a few minutes of watching Toph and Teo go at it Katara couldn't take it any more.

"Hey Toph can I put your cd's in? We need some music," the brown haired girl said leaping up from her spot.

Toph's character sucessfully hit Teo's right in the face, "YES! Yeah sure, they're on the sidetable next to Zuko." She flung another punch but this time Teo's character ducked. "Aw man! Lucky move."

Katara walked behind the couch to the other side, Jet's eyes were following her the whole time. Zuko leaned over and grabbed the cd's and handed them to her; she gave him a smile and politely said "Thank you." Zuko returned the smile, "Your welcome." Katara turned and walked away to the stereo and Jet glared at the whole scene before him so when Teo threw his arms up in victory Jet stood up.

The doorbell rang and Yao's voice called out, "Miss Toph! The pizza's are here, could you give me a hand?" Toph but down her controller and called back up, "Yup, on my way. Someone else can play. C'mon Twinkeltoes." Aang jumped up from his spot on the floor and followed her up the stairs to help.

"I'll go next, who wants to go against me?" he said looking right at Zuko. The raven haired boy got the message and accepted the challenge, "I'll go." The rest of the room stiffened as the two boys stood but as Zuko reached for a controller Jet spoke out, "You know what might make this more interesting? Real boxing, Toph's parents have an old gym down here. They've hidden the door behind that cabinet." The brown haired boy said walking over to a corner where a large china cabinet stood.

Suki sighed as she and Sokka got up and followed them she said, "Jet don't do this. We're supposed to be having fun tonight."

Katara reached for Jet's arm as he began to push the China cabinet aside. "Please Jet, let's just go back to partying." Jet put one arm on top of the cabinet and the other about midway up the large cabinet.

"I think the only one here who has the right to say we go back to the party is Zuko and I don't think he's going to back dow- ARGH!" the boy gripped his side, the same side Zuko had hit earlier this week and the boy had flinched. Now Jet sank to the ground and a large visible dark stain was begining to to form on his dark navy shirt. Smellerbee and Longshot ran to his side and each had a worried look on their face.

Katara sat down next to him and with a stern face said, "Lift it up." He gave her a sly grin and was about to say something but she cut him off, "Oh shut up Jet, now let me see it." His grin faded and he pulled his shirt up a bit to reveal bruised skin and a deep gash that had broken homemade stitches in it.

Suki gasped, "Oh Jet why didn't you tell us?"

"I told you not to do anything strenuous! You were pushing it by going to combat class this week," Smellerbee scolded.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Katara whispered and had Zuko not been standing behind her he wouldn't have heard her because at that moment Toph and Aang thundered down the stairs and both carried three boxes of pizza in their arms. "Okay guys food's here, holy shit! What happened to Jet?" the small black haired girl exclaimed when she saw the scene.

"That's just what we were trying to find out. Explain Jet, now," Suki said with force and when she saw Jet's eyes flicker over to Zuko she snapped, "Oh let it go Jet! Spill it now."

Jet looked at her and as Katara pulled out her wallet sewing kit and began to replace the stitched said, "Fine, last weekend we were all having dinner and I asked a question Long Feng didn't necessarily want to answer."

.:.:.:.:.:.

_It was dinner time last Saturday night at Jet's home and he had just got in from working at the grocery store and he smelled one of the dinner's Long Feng had ordered pre-made every week. he walked into the dining room to see his foster father and his the other kids already seated at the table. Long Feng glared at him from his spot at the head of the table, "Jet you are late for dinner. You know how I hate tardiness."_

_Jet sauntered into the room and took his usual spot next to Longshot and across from a spot that had been empty for almost two months now. "I was working at the job you told me to get remember?" he snapped as he began to load his plate with potatoes and chicken when Long Feng's fist slammed down on the table making Smellerbee and the Duke jump a little, the other boys just looked at what was going on and tensed._

_"I told you to get a job, I did not tell you to be late," Long Feng growled and looked Jet right in the eyes._

_Jet glared right back at him, "Sir! I am sorry sir! I will try not to be late again sir!" He did a mock salute but Long Feng was not laughing._

_"Just shut up and eat your food," Long Feng said. The kids around the table were surprised, normally their tyrant of a guardian would have done more than just command Jet to eat his dinner after his display of disrespect. What was more surprising was that Jet did as he was told, for a little while anyway. His dark brown eyes looked at the chair across from him, "It's too bad Jun isn't here. Do you know why she left?" he asked, the question directed at Long Feng._

_The man gripped his fork tightly, "I said shut up and eat Jet do not disobey me."_

_"Why not? Jun did and you didn't kill her, you know she's staying somewhere and I'm just surprised you haven't dragged her back here yet," Jet said coolly as he put a forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. _

_Long Feng's face began to grow red and Smellerbee's eyes became filled with worry, the others just braced themselves for they all knew what was coming. "That's enough Jet," Long Feng growled._

_Jet didn't listen and went on, "Or maybe you're just losing your touch ol' man." The teen didn't have time to finish off the sentence with a smirk before Long Feng's hand darted out and slapped him right across the face. He then got up from his spot and knocked Jet's chair over. Jet and the chair tumbled to the floor, the teen heard Sneers tell Smellerbee and The Duke to go upstairs before Long Feng's face was right in front of his. "You do not disrespect me," he kicked Jet in the side with enough force to make Jet cough out a gasp. "I allow you to live here and go to a nice school, you do not disrespect me!" Long Feng emphasized each word._

_Jet still winded on the floor panted, "You don't deserve my respect or Jun's." At those words Long Feng grabbed one of the knives off of the table and before Jet could do anything to brace himself, the man plunged it into the side that he had kicked earlier. Jet tried to stifle a howl of pain but wasn't successful. Long Feng bent down to his level and with a wicked grin on his face gripped Jet by his hair painfully and said, "Maybe that will teach you to to keep your mouth shut."_

_He let go of Jet and disappeared into his study, as soon as they heard the door shut Sneers and Longshot went to help Jet stand up. They supported him as they walked up the stairs where Smellerbee was already waiting. She shook her head at what she saw, "Why didn't you just keep your mouth shut?"_

_Jet smiled, "Not my nature to." _

_Smellerbee rolled her eyes, "Come on, I've got some thick thread in my room. By looks of you you're probably going to need stitches." The three boys followed her into her room and sat Jet down of the spare bed opposite of Smellerbee's messy one, the one that used to belong to Jun. _

_Smellerbee walked over to him with a needle and thread, "You are so lucky Long Feng made me take home ec. instead of combat. If he didn't we would have nothing to sew you up with and we'd have to go to the ER again and make up some lame story AGAIN. Hold still, this might hurt a bit." _

_Jet grinned, "Nothing I can't take. And the only reason why he didn't let you take Combat was because Jun did when she went there and he doesn't want another girl to be able to fight him when he does stupid stuff like that."_

_Smellerbee gave a dark laugh as she sewed, "I don't think he's worried about me calling him out on that stuff, he's worried about me fighting back like she did when he'd try to come in here at night."_

_Jet saw Longshot tense behind her and he too lost his lighthearted feeling at the girl's words. "He hasn't done to you what he did to her right?" Jet asked in an angry tone and Longshot's eyes were focused intensely on the back of Smellerbee's head._

_"Rape me? No, I don't think he would, Jun was the pretty one; he doesn't mind reminding me of that," Jet noticed Longshot's fists clench at her words, " Besides even if he does, I've been practicing those self defense moves Jun and Toph taught me so he's in for a surprise if he does try it," the girl said proudly. Her brothers were not amused however._

_"It would not come to that Bee," Jet said. "Longshot and I would make sure of that." He looked at her seriously and she gave him a lopsided smile._

_"You know I'm not four anymore guys. You two taught me how to throw a punch too remember? I can take care of myself," she said pulling the last stitch threw Jet's flesh. She was surprised that he barely flinched the whole time. "There, you're all done. I don't know if you should go to combat class this week, those stitches will do but I'm no expert when it comes to medical sewing and fighting might make them rip out," Smellerbee said._

_Jet jumped up from his spot on the bed, "Nah, I'll be fine. I'm the best in the class." He saw his sister's worried face and said, "but I'll try to take it easy there if it will make you feel better." Smellerbee's face brightened and she held out her fist for him to bump with his. _

.:.:.:.:.:.

"Well that was dumb," Toph said when Jet had finished his story.

"Thanks Toph," Jet replied.

"No I mean it, it really sounds like you were asking for it there Jet," she said.

"Yeah you know Long Feng has a short fuse especially when it comes to Jun. Why did you even bring her up?" Suki asked.

"Because I think something bad has happened to her," Jet said and he sounded angry. "I haven't heard from her in weeks and she told me that she'd be in touch. If it weren't for Long Feng being the asshole that he is, Jun would be at home and not doing something stupid like I know she is."

Zuko felt a little guilty after hearing that. He didn't like Jet all that much, Zuko thought he was cocky and arrogant, but you could tell in his voice that he truly cared for Jun and was worried. Zuko looked around and saw a few other surprised faces, Jet must not show this side of him very much.

Jet took a deep breath, "The Raiders have been more active this year, what if they got to her?"

Smellerbee shook her head, "Jun would escape. She's smart, she could get her way out of any bad situation she's in." The girl's raspy voice cracked a bit at the end, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself as well as Jet. Longshot put his hand on her shoulder as she sniffed.

"You can't stay there Jet. That's the last straw, had Smellerbee not known how to sew you up you might have died. There are major veins in abdomen that he could have hit," Suki stated quietly.

"What about the others? I can't leave them there," Jet said.

"We'll be fine Jet, we know how to keep our mouths shut unlike you," Smellerbee said forcing a smile and Longshot nodded in agreement.

"Where would I stay? I can't stay here or with you or Haru, Suki. Long Feng would come and find me," Jet said.

"You can stay with me," Katara said forcefully.

Jet shook his head, "No I can't."

"Tell me why not?" she demanded her blue eyes filled with fire.

"Because you're dad is a cop, he'd aske why and then go after Long Feng. My foster dad is tricky he can get out of anything and then he'll just go after your family too," Jet said. Katara looked defeated.

Now Zuko had an idea, "You can stay with me." The room was filled with tension and Jet was silently staring at him. "We have room at my uncle's place, your foster dad wouldn't think to look for you in Ember either."

The group of teens were silent for a moment but then Sokka spoke up, "You know he has a point Jet."

"It makes sense, Longshot and I could just say that you were spending the weekend at some other friend's house. He wouldn't care," Smellerbee calmly.

Jet looked as if he wanted to explode but Katara placed her hand on his and said, "Jet please go with Zuko." Her blue orbs stared into his brown ones and Jet looked up at Zuko and said, "Fine. I'll go with the Ember Prince but if you don't see me at school Monday you'll know what happened."

Katara hugged Jet, "Thank you." He looked a little shocked but quickly got over it and hugged her back. Sokka took a step forward to them but Suki stopped him, she smiled at him as if to say 'Leave them alone. It's okay.' Sokka relaxed after that.

"Okay well if everyone is done with the drama, I say we get back to the party!" Toph said and she turned up the song playing on the cd. There were shouts in agreement and the teens congregated around the pizza boxes as they tried to ignore what just happened.

* * *

Okay that's kind of a cliffhanger but I don't think I've really given you guys one in this story yet so I don't feel all that bad. Anyway, please review!


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Hi guys! Sorry for the late update, unfortunately since school is starting up again I won't be able to update as frequently as I was earlier this summer but I will try to have an update at least once a month but I'm not promising anything.

I'm a little uneasy on how I did on this chapter so bear with me on it and I'm sorry if it seems sloppy.

* * *

The ride back to The Jasmine Dragon was awkward to say the least. Neither boy spoke and they seemed to prefer it that way. But all good things come to an end and they finally got to Iroh's cafe around midnight that night. Zuko parked his uncle's car in the alley next to the cafe, "We're here," was all he said as he got out of the car, Jet followed suit.

"What? No mansions? I was expecting something a bit bigger Sozin," Jet said as he followed Zuko to the front of the store. Zuko didn't respond but stopped at the door with a sign that said 'Closed', the raven haired boy pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and fumbled for the right one meanwhile he was just trying to figure out how he could give Jun a heads up about their extra guest.

"Yeah well I'm sorry to disappoint," Zuko said and opened the door he didn't see any sign of Jun anywhere. He could hear Iroh singing from the back room and he saw that Lu Ten was wiping down the front counter. His cousin's head popped up and a smile formed on his face, "Zuko's home guys, now we can all rag on him for missing the dinner rush." Jet stepped out from behind Zuko and Lu Ten's face got a confused look on it. "He's brought company too."

"Well don't be rude Lu Ten, offer the company something to drink and eat," Iroh said coming out of the back room. "How was the party nephew?"

Zuko didn't have time to respond when the one voice he didn't want to hear at the moment rang out. "Wow a party and guests, our little emo boy is growing up," Jun appeared walking down the stairs, her black boots making a loud noise with each step. She froze when she saw just who the company was, Zuko counted in his head 'Five, four, three, two, one...'

"Jun!? What the hell are you doing here?" Jet shouted angrily as he walked swiftly toward her. His eyes were narrowed and his fists were tightly clenched.

Jun placed her hands on her hips and looked straight at Zuko, "I could ask you the same thing."

Jet also turned to look at Zuko with complete fury in his eyes and yelled, "So you've known where she was the whole time?"

"I didn't know she had stopped talking to you," Zuko said calmly but shot a glare a Jun.

"Yeah that's probably because you Sozins took her phone away," Jet accused pointing a finger at Zuko.

"Hey! Don't talk to them that way! Iroh, Lu Ten, and Zuko have been nothing but nice to me while I've been here and you will not disrespect them!" Jun yelled at the angry brown haired teen with a look in her eyes that could rival Medusa's stare.

Jet gripped her by the arms, "Listen to me Jun! They've brainwashed you, it's like Stockholm syndrome. They're not your friends, I'm your family remember?"

Before Jun had the chance to snarl a response back to him Iroh stepped in between them, "I think we should all just settle down and discuss this over some tea. Lu Ten prepare a table."

"No thanks Iroh, I think I better talk to Jet about this alone," Jun said and grabbed Jet's wrist and half dragged him up the stairs to her room leaving the Sozin men alone downstairs. She pointed at the bed, "Sit." He sat down on the bed and she pulled up a chair and sat across from him, she ran a hand through her glossy hair and took a deep breath; Jun wasn't the best at explaining herself and she certainly wasn't any good at apologizing. "It was wrong of me to ignore your calls and texts-"

"Damn straight it was!" he interrupted.

"Hey! Let me do the talkin' okay?" she snapped and Jet silenced himself. "Good, like I said, I'm sorry I ignored you, but that doesn't give you any right to be rude to Iroh, Lu, or Zuko got it? They didn't do anything to you, I did and I'm sorry. Now let me explain; I lost my job at Transcend-"

"Yeah I know, I checked up on you." Jet interrupted again.

The older girl looked at him perplexed, "You checked up on me? No, no more interrupting me or I will put you in a world of pain." The boy was quiet and so she continued, "Anyway I lost my job and I knew I couldn't go back home and get you or Bee beat up again. So while I was trying to figure stuff out this guy walks up to me and asks me what's going on, I tried to shake him for a bit but he was so Goddamn persistent that eventually I told him I couldn't go home and that I lost my job. He offered me a place to stay and-"

"And you went with him!? These are Sozins Jun! The same guys you and I made fun of all the time. They're from the same place that those assholes who ruined our other families belonged to! You might think they care about you Jun but they don't," Jet said desperately.

"Oh really?" She growled. "Then why would one of them beat up Long Feng for me if they didn't care?" Jet was stunned by that.

"One of them beat up Long Feng?" he asked quietly while he was staring at her.

Jun relaxed a little bit and leaned back in her chair, "Yup, Lu Ten did now if you would let me get to that part of my story I would appreciate it. Lu brought me back here and Iroh offered me a job which I took. A couple days later Lu and I went back to the house for my things, ol' Fengie was waiting there and he tried to rough me up and said some stuff to me that really pissed off Lu Ten, he got so mad that he punched the bastard right in the face. I'm sure he had a black eye after that if you remember that."

Jet did remember and he looked at her in surprise, "A Sozin beat up Long Feng to defend you? You sure there's no chance they could just be using you?"

Jun gave him an insulted stare, "Jet I would know if they were using me, not much gets past me."

He laughed a little, "I guess that's true." He looked at his surrogate sister: she was smiling and there wasn't the ghost of a bruise or a cut anywhere he could see. She even looked healthier. "You're happy aren't you?" he asked.

Jun's half smile grew a little, "Yeah I am."

"Well I guess if they've kept you out of trouble and beat up Long Feng I'll try to tolerate them," Jet said, some of his light humor returning to his voice.

"Good 'cause I'm staying here even if you don't," she said.

"Whatever Jun, so what's up with you and this guy Lu Ten?" he asked.

Jun narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean what up with me and Lu?"

"Oh come on Jun, I can see that you have a thing for this Lu Ten guy. Even if I am going to be open to them Jun you know it's against the rules to be interested in him," Jet teased.

"So what if I like him, screw society! Besides you shouldn't be talking, Zuko told me that you've been hanging around a girl from the Districts: Katara Kuruk. Even if she's not Ember she's still off limits," she retorted.

"Well you and I never liked rules anyway," Jet said dismissively.

"That's true, so how long have you been interested in this girl?," Jun said letting her feminine side take over for a little bit.

Jet was toying with his fingers with his face down when he responded, "Couple months."

Jun's visible eye bugged out, "You're kidding? You've never been with one girl that long before."

Jet lowered his head to hide the slight blush on his face. "Yeah well Kat's different," he mumbled.

"Aw isn't that just special!" she said sarcastically and then much to Jet's relief added, "Well we better get back down there to show Iroh that we haven't murdered each other." She got up from her spot and started out the door when Jet said, "Hey Jun?"

She turned around, "Yeah?"

"I missed you," Jet said sincerely. Jun smiled, "I missed you too jerk." With that the two walked out and started to walk down the stairs where they had left the Sozin men who were all sitting at one of the tables, Zuko was drinking a coke and Lu Ten had a beer. They seemed to be arguing about something while Iroh sat peacefully drinking his tea.

"You couldn't have sent a text or something? Geez Zuko way to think things through," Lu Ten hissed angrily, something Jun found hilarious by now.

"Oh yeah how would that have gone? "Hi I'm bringing Jun's brother who happens to hate us and isn't too happy with her at the moment home with me." That would definitely been better," Zuko snapped back.

"Now boys that is no way to act when guests are present," Iroh said being the only one who noticed Jun and Jet return from upstairs. The two boys averted their gazes to the two, Lu Ten's angry face melted away but Zuko's stayed.

"You know nephew if you keep looking that way your face might freeze," Iroh said.

"It would be an improvement if you ask me," Jun said casually as she went behind the the counter and grabbed a beer and another coke. Lu Ten smirked at her comment and said, "So I assume things are okay with you two now."

"Yeah we're cool and Jet is going to keep his trap shut," Jun said walking over and pulling up a chair next to Lu Ten.

"Well that is splendid!" Iroh said, "Mister Jet take off your coat and make yourself at home," Iroh said to the boy standing away from the group. "I will get you a chair while you get comfortable," the old man said getting up from his spot.

Jet looked a little confused, from the experiences he had had with other people from Ember they weren't as personable as this guy. "Uh okay," Jet said sliding his hoodie off forgetting that he had a rather large stain on his shirt but soon remembered.

Lu Ten choked on the beer he was drinking and Jun looked at Jet to see what was wrong. "Holy shit dude! What happened to you?" Lu Ten sputtered, staring at the stain and Jun stiffened next to him and glared at Jet who nodded in response to the question he knew shew was thinking.

"Long Feng happened," Zuko said and immediately his cousin's mood changed. "Oh I see," was all Lu Ten could think to say.

"God Jet what did you do this time?" Jun asked.

He smirked as he sipped his coke, "I just insulted him as usual, oh and I brought you up. You're kind of a sore spot with him now."

"And he got so mad that he decided to stab you? When did it happen?" Jun asked.

"Last weekend, Bee stitched me up but I kinda stressed the stitches today and they broke at Toph's place," Jet said.

Iroh looked at the stain in question, "It must have been a pretty deep cut and no amount of OxyClean will fix that stain. Zuko go get Jet one of your shirts to wear." Zuko got up quietly and disappeared up the stairs.

Jun shook her head at Jet, "You can't go back there Jet."

"I seem to be hearing that a lot, I won't go back this weekend but I have to go back at some point," Jet said.

"Why the hell do you say that?" Jun shouted, under the table Lu Ten grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze; if she had noticed she didn't let on.

Jet shouted back at her, "I have to go back because Long Feng's already pissed as hell that you escaped and look how he's taking that out?" He pointed to the blood stain on his shirt. "If I don't go back then he'll just be twice as mad and take it out on one of the others. Sneers is smart and locks himself up in his room half the time, Longshot's strong enough to handle it but Bee and the Duke aren't and Longshot can't be around all the time to protect the both of them. I can take whatever ol' Feng tries to do, that's why I have to go back."

He was right, and Jun knew it. "Fine, you'll stay here a little while but when you go back no more shit just to make him mad got it?" she said staring directly at him.

"Yes ma'am," Jet replied with a smirk, which made Lu Ten laugh a little. He tried to cover it up as a cough but Jun wasn't fooled and smacked him on the shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" Lu Ten whined.

"Don't encourage him," she barked at the raven haired boy. At the same time Zuko walked down the stairs with a red T-shirt in one hand. He tossed the shirt to Jet and mumbled, "Here." Jet caught the shirt and mumbled back, "Thanks."

Lu Ten feeling the awkward situation beginning to set in stretched and yawned, "Well for those of us who actually worked today, I think it would be a good idea to go to bed." He stood up and began to pull out Jun's chair.

"I'm not tired though," she protested somewhat sleepily.

"Ah but you will be when you have to wake up at seven to get the store ready. So come on lets go," Lu Ten said persuasively and Jun got up from her chair.

She groaned in protest, "Why do you always have to make sense? It gets annoying."

Lu Ten laughed as they walked up the stairs and responded by saying, "Aw come on Jun you know it's one of the many things you love about me." Jun argued back but the others left downstairs couldn't hear what she said exactly but they could hear the faint sound of laughter. Iroh smiled, Jet looked disgusted, and Zuko just looked apathetic.

Jet turned to Zuko and with his eyebrows raised asked, "They don't sleep in the same room do they?" He sounded as if he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

Zuko smiled a little but shook his head, "No Jun sleeps in the guest room and I share with Lu Ten." Jet seemed to relax a bit at this statement but only a little.

"Which reminds me, there's really no room upstairs for young Jet to sleep but I think there is a cot in the basement that is quite comfortable," Iroh said. "Zuko why don't you show him the way down and get him set up? You two have had a long day and will need some rest," the old man finished while sipping his tea.

"Alright Uncle," Zuko said getting up. He looked at Jet and motioned for the boy to stand up, "Come on, it's this way." Jet got up and began to follow him but stopped in front of Iroh and said while looking down and ruffling his hair, "Hey um, thanks for letting me stay. And for taking Jun in."

Iroh looked kindly at the boy, "It is my pleasure." Jet nodded and then followed Zuko in the direction of the basement. The raven haired boy walked to the back room where there was white door with a lock on it. Zuko reached up on one of the shelves and grabbed an old looking teapot, he reached inside and pulled out a key. He unlocked the door and placed the teapot back in its place and began to walk down the stairs which creaked under the teenage boys weight. At the bottom of the stairs Zuko flipped a switch and Jet was surprised at what he saw.

He had been expecting a musty storage room but it looked like a training room. Almost exactly identical to Piandao's combat room at school. The floors were carpeted and in the middle of the room was a padded square area.

"The bed's in the corner there, I'll leave you the key so you don't get paranoid about us locking you in down here," Zuko said with some venom in his voice, breaking Jet's train of thought.

"Thanks; nice pictures," Jet said walking over to the opposite wall where pictures were hung. There were a few black and white ones of what Jet guessed was Iroh in his younger days standing with a trophy with a man who looked a lot like Piandao.

"My uncle and Piandao have been friends for a long time. They went to the same martial arts school, The White Lotus Training School," Zuko said quietly noticing Jet looking at the picture.

"That's Piandao?" Jet said in quiet surprise to himself as he looked at the picture.

"I know, hard to believe you could like someone from Ember," Zuko said with the same venomous tone.

"Yeah really," Jet said ignoring Zuko's tone. He looked at another picture of three kids in karate uniforms. Two boys who looked identical except one was taller and a small girl. Jet could only assume that this was Lu Ten and Azula but he couldn't guess who the other boy in the picture was until he looked closer and saw the boy wearing Zuko's half smile. It couldn't be, this boy had no scar on his face though and Jet couldn't imagine Zuko without a scar but he guessed there had to be a time when Zuko did look...normal.

Again Zuko noticed what picture Jet was looking at and growing uncomfortable decided to go upstairs but was stopped by Jet, "Zuko?"

Zuko turned to look at the teen, "Yeah?"

"Lets get things straight, I'm going to be staying here for awhile. I don't like you and you don't like me, I'm going to tolerate you but in order to do that I'm going to have to trust you. For me to trust you, you have to answer some questions," Jet said.

Zuko didn't know what Jet was playing at but decided to indulge him, "Alright." He walked over to the padded part of the floor and sat down, "What do you want to know?"

Jet remained standing with his arms crossed, "Why did your dad kick you out. I've heard rumors but I want to know the real reason."

Zuko sighed quietly trying to think of how to word his answer before he responded, "I'm not proud of a lot of the things my family is responsible for. I spoke out against my father and he said I shouldn't be home by the time he got home from work basically." Zuko was pleased he had answered the question without giving too much information away.

Jet however was not satisfied, "What did you say to your dad exactly?"

That was it, Zuko had no choice but to tell Jet about his family's involvement with the Raiders, he only hoped this conversation wouldn't end with a broken bone. "Like I said, I'm not proud of my family's actions. We're in charge of the Raiders, my dad tells them who to hit and they do as he says. When he ordered Dow's farm to be burned, I spoke out. I told him it wasn't right, he had no reason since he mainly uses the Raiders to get rid of business competitors and we don't do anything with agriculture. When he dismissed the subject I wouldn't let it go and said some things that made him throw me out."

Jet slowly nodded, not seeming surprised at all. "I always knew the Sozins had something to do with the Raiders. Next question: why isn't your uncle in charge of the company. I know that Sozin Corp. is always under the command of the eldest son. I've seen pictures in the paper of your dad and Iroh up there is definitely the older brother."

"That's simple, my father stole it when my grandfather was on his deathbed. My uncle would rather be in charge of the tea shop though," Zuko said.

Jet didn't acknowledge his answer, "How did you get your scar?"

Zuko tensed at this question, the story of how he recieved his scar wasn't exactly a story he liked to tell. "It's kind of a long story," he said.

That didn't bother Jet one bit, "We've got time; how did it happen?"

Zuko looked down at his hands, "A long time ago my mom found out the truth about "the family business", she didn't like it of course and tried to persuade my dad to end it. As you can guess he didn't listen to her and eventually it got so bad that they wanted a divorce. My dad didn't like that she knew so much about the inner workings of the company, so he had a restraining order made, said lies about her to the media and threatened her to go along with those lies. The court granted my father full custody and the restraining order, my mom left town and I haven't seen her since.

You probably wouldn't be surprised to know that it was my mom who was the better parent, my dad was never home and when he was it wasn't good. One night when he was home, our maid Lo had been cooking dinner and he was in the kitchen. Lo had left for some reason and my dad had to finish cooking, things were said that eventually led up to me telling him that I thought he was a bad parent and that I wanted to go live with my mom. He got so angry that he slammed my face onto one of the open burners and held my there until Azula came in to see what was wrong, she had heard me screaming. He ignored me but when Azula shed a few tears he released me and called an ambulance. I was in the hospital for a few weeks after that, my uncle and Lu Ten were my only visitors. Azula told me once that she had wanted to visit but my dad wouldn't let her."

After Zuko had finished his story, Jet walked over and lay down on the padded floor with his hands behind his head and said abruptly, "Okay I trust you."

Zuko raised an eyebrow at him, "Um thanks?" He had been expecting a bit more of a response from Jet.

"You're welcome," Jet said smugly. Then a thought occurred to Zuko..

"Alright Jet you had your questions, now I have something I want to ask you," Zuko said.

Jet sat up, he had not been expecting that, "Why?"

"I have to know if I can trust you," the black haired boy replied.

Jet rolled his eyes, "Fine what do you want to know?" He said crossing his arms again.

"How did you end up at Long Feng's? How did your parents die?" Zuko asked in a calm and even voice.

It was now Jet's turn to tense, he never talked to anyone about his parents. Jun and the other kids at Long Fengs knew as did Suki, he hadn't gotten to tell Katara yet. He almost considered refusing to tell but then he remembered that he had made Zuko tell about his scar so it was only fair, and Jet liked to think of himself as a fair man.

"I was eight years old and went to the public school in Terra. It wasn't far from my house so I usually walked to school and one day when I came home there were police cars and paramedics outside our house. I told the police that I lived there and asked if my parents were okay, no one answered that question until they took me to the station down town. My parents weren't okay, the Raiders had broken into our house and shot my mom and dad. My dad wasn't even supposed to be there but he decided to come home for lunch that day and take the afternoon off, he had gotten a promotion," Jet said.

"What did your dad do for a living?" Zuko asked.

"He was a lawyer and was working on some big case," Jet said dismissively. Zuko felt sympathy for him, he knew what it was like to lose one parent and since his dad was hardly ever around he could relate a little.

"I'm sorry Jet," Zuko said even though he knew that really it wouldn't mean anything.

"Yeah whatever," Jet went back to laying down on the floor and there was a silence for awhile before he spoke again. "You know, I may be judging you too quick and don't tell anyone I said this but, you don't seem like such a bad guy for a Sozin. Your uncle and Lu Ten don't seem too bad either, but your dad and your sister are real jackasses."

"Not all Sozins are the same," Zuko said. "My sister used to be okay, she changed after my mom left though," Zuko trailed off and Jet let that subject drop. He may be almost convinced the Zuko was alright but there was no way anyone was going to change his mind about that crazy girl Azula.

"Well now you know about me and I know about you so, are we friends?" Zuko asked sticking out his hand. Jet looked at it a little warily but shook it with a smirk, "Yeah I guess we can be."

After that Zuko went back up the stairs and into the room he shared with Lu Ten and for the first time in a long time, both Jet and Zuko fell asleep peacefully.

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What do you think? Too cheesy? I can't say I'm too proud of it but I'm not sure, let me know what you guys think.


	11. Chapter 11

I own nothing!

So when I was supposed to be taking pictures for my art class I decided to instead update this! You should all feel special. Thanks to Demeter for reviewing!

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Azula hated not knowing things. She hated it when people dared to keep things secret from her. Ty Lee almost never did, and even when she would try to Azula always knew what it was her bouncy friend knew that she thought Azula did not. Mai just didn't care enough to keep secrets, so she was no worry, though recently that was a different case. The angsty girl had been quieter than usual, around the time her brother had been kicked out and that put Azula on alert slightly. Over all though the Sozin girl wasn't too concerned about Mai.

Zuko however was a different story. Ever since they were little Azula always bragged about knowing things before her big brother did, but every once in a while Zuko would be up to something or would be clued in on something she didn't know about. Most of the time she was able to figure her brother out but there were times that Zuko showed a little of the Sozin family cunning gene rather well.

The other day he had been walking around with freaks and low lives from other parts of town and Azula couldn't wrap her mind around why. At first she assumed the obvious, he simply wanted to make their father even more angry. Maybe he thought word would get out to their father that Zuko Sozin was becoming friends with repulsive people such as the Kuruks and Suki Kyoshi; but that would be too obvious, he had to have some ulterior motive. Azula was even more quietly stunned when on Monday she saw Zuko and Jet walk into school together so casually as if they had been polite acquaintances for years. She knew for a fact that Jet Durden had an extreme distaste for the Sozin family and had been a thorn in Zuko's side since his freshmen year.

That's when a new idea formulated inside Azula's brain, Zuko had been hanging around the very group that started all the pandemonium of mixing at Element Private. Zuko had joined them and was going to try to destroy the Ember name. She figured this out while watching the happy group at lunch on the same Monday. She decided that she would have to tell her father so he could take the right precautions, but first she would have to gather more facts and in order to do that she would need help from someone who knew everything about everyone in the school.

She glanced over across from her at Ty Lee who was flirting with Ruon Jian once again, 'Perfect.' When Coach Zhao shouted for everyone to leave Azlua grabbed Ty Lee and dragged her away from Ruon Jian much to the cheerleader's sadness. "Aw Azula, he was going to ask me out this Friday. I was sure of it!"

"You're busy," Azula said simply as she pulled the girl beside her as she walked briskly down the hall. Ty Lee didn't argue with her, she had been friends with Azula since the first grade and she knew by now that there was no arguing with the Sozin princess. Finally Azula stopped in an empty doorway, "Ty Lee I want you to do something for me."

Ty Lee knew there was only one answer to that question when Azula asked it so she replied brightly, "Sure! What is it?"

"I want you to find out everything you can about that mutt group. You know the one: Dow, Bei Fong, Kyoshi, the Kuruks, Durden and the others. I have a suspicion about them but I need to find out more about them before I report anything," Azula commanded.

Ty Lee had completely forgotten about her sadness of Ruon Jian and practically bounced when she answered, "Oh I love gossip, of course I can do it! You can count on me!"

"Very good, I also want you to find out why Zuko's hanging around them. Don't let anyone know what you're up to though or everything is ruined," Azula said beginning to walk away and Ty Lee nodded vigorously. Azula turned around once again and added, "Oh and Ty Lee, don't tell Mai about this. I have suspicions about her." The raven haired girl didn't wait for Ty Lee's responses as she walked off to class.

Ty Lee's face had fallen and she began to worry for her other friend; she knew many things about Azula but one of the most important ones she knew was that it was never good for Azula to be suspicious of you.

.:.:.:.:.:.

Today, Jet walked out of the the cafeteria with Zuko and Haru and was acting friendly toward Zuko. Haru wasn't sure whether or not he should happy or worried about this. "I mean did you see Chan's face?! It was great, Toph totally let him have it," Jet said to Zuko while laughing.

Zuko half smiled, "Yeah Chan will watch himself the next time he tries to cut in front of Toph."

Finally Haru spoke up, "Well it seems you two had a good weekend." The brown haired boy smiled and Jet shrugged, "Yeah it was alright." Zuko nodded in agreement.

"Well good, see you guys later," Haru said turning into his Chemistry class.

As Zuko and Jet walked to their other class Zuko said, "Maybe we better be careful people are starting to stare at us." As he spoke Song and Jin were in fact staring wide-eyed and jaws open as the boys walked by.

"Now why would they do that," Jet asked grinning, his toothpick still sticking out of his mouth.

"Um probably because we hated each other last week," Zuko said not picking up on the hint of sarcasm in Jet's voice.

"Zuko I know, but who cares? Let them stare at rebellion, it's a great thing," Jet said throwing the toothpick in a garbage can and winking at the girls who blushed and looked away. Zuko shrugged and let it go. As they walked the hallway population began to diminish and so Zuko thought it was safe to ask, "So are you staying over tonight or going back home?"

"Not sure, I might crash at yours or Suki's, probably yours. I'll go back either Wednesday or Thursday I think," Jet said. "You sick of me yet?" he said grinning stopping in front of Mr. Bumi's History classroom.

"Nauseous," Zuko called back as he walked on to English. Jet laughed and went inside the classroom to take his spot next to Song who blushed when he wasn't looking.

Meanwhile out in the halls someone had heard the whole conversation the boys had thought had been in secret. Ty Lee popped out of the art room doorway and smiled, Azula was going to love this.

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Sorry this is so short! I was going to add more but it didn't feel right when I looked at it. Hopefully I'll be able to update as soon as I was able to update this one but I've got an art project due already this week. = / So it will be a long shot but I'll try. Please review!!


	12. Chapter 12

I own nothing!

I know I haven't updated in months and I am truly sorry!! I'm done with my Composition class now so I actually have time to get to write fun stuff for you guys!

I wanted to give a big thank you to Demeter and Luna-cat-kitty for being such loyal and prompt reviewers! You guys are awesome!

Now down to business, this chapter is going to be longer than the last (yay!) so sit tight and get comfortable. Oh and reviews at the end would be nice too.

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Azula drove through Ty Lee's neighborhood later that day, exceeding the speed limit, and blasting her music. She only slowed down when she was almost directly in front of the Chang's large reddish pink brick two-story house. She slammed her door loud enough to announce her arrival, one of Ty Lee's sister's was bound to hear it if the bouncy cheerleader had not heard it herself. She strode up to the door which surprisingly was not open yet so she rang the gold plated fancy doorbell. A few seconds later the door opened to reveal a small brown haired clone of Ty Lee. "Hello Lin, where is Ty Lee?" Azula said brushing past the small child and sitting herself down on the brown leather couch.

The child rolled her eyes at the older girl. She placed her hands on her hips and snapped, "First of all I'm Lili, not Lin, not Luli, not Jia or any of my other of my sisters that you confuse me with. I don't see how you can't seem to remember a simple little name but maybe your brain can't handle that much information. Secondly Ty Lee's in the basement practicing, I wouldn't interrupt her especially if she doesn't know you're coming."

Lili smiled deviously as Azula's face got redder and redder with anger. "Why you little brat!" the teenage girl growled just as Ty Lee appeared in the kitchen having ascended from the basement. "Ty Lee the bossy one is here," the small girl said as she flopped down on the couch next to Azula and reached across her to grab the remote on the table next to Azula. The older girl steamed as Lili began to flip through channels totally unaware of the seething girl next to her.

"Lili! You're supposed to be nice to guests," Ty Lee said brightly as she sashayed over to them.

"I don't like her, she doesn't like me; why pretend to be nice?" Lili said while staring at the screen. Ty Lee ignored her younger sister's comment and grabbed Azula, who was still red with anger, by the wrist and bounded up the stairs. "Wait till you hear what I have to tell you!" They passed by a couple of Ty Lee's older sisters on their way who both smiled politely in contrast to the youngest Chang daughter. Finally they got to Ty Lee's room which was covered in pink from the walls to the bedspread. Azula plopped herself down on the hot pink comforter, "You know Ty Lee you really have to teach that sister of yours some manners."

The brown haired girl grinned sheepishly, "Yeah sorry about Lili, she's a little sassy."

Azula waved off the matter, "Yeah whatever, so what is it you had to tell me?"

Ty Lee's face brightened once again, "Oh my gosh you won't believe it! It's so juicy I wouldn't have even believed it had I not heard it with my own ears and seen it with my own eyes!"

Growing impatient Azula snapped, "Well then tell me Ty Lee! Honestly I have things to do and don't have time to sit around listening to simple gossip."

The black haired girl's bark didn't stop Ty Lee from beaming, "Right sorry! Okay, Jet is staying with Zuko somewhere!"

At those words, Azula's scowl morphed into a sneaky grin. She got up from her spot and walked over to the large window on the opposite side of the room. "Hmm, well that is interesting Ty Lee. Are you sure it's true though? Zuko has hated Durden since he was a freshman."

The brown haired girl nodded vigorously, "I heard them talking about it in the hall after lunch today!"

Azula's eyes glinted with mischief, "Oh father must know about this! They both must be punished for breaking the rules. I want you to find out exactly where it is they're staying, I assume it's my uncle's place but I want to be sure. Keep on listening for anything though."

"I will Azula don't worry," Ty Lee said.

"Good, I have to go now. I have dinner with my father tonight so I can't be late," Azula said grabbing her purse from Ty Lee's bed. As she began to make her way out of the room Ty Lee asked a question.

"Um Azula? What do you think will happen to Zuko and Jet, once your dad finds out?" The brown haired girl looked a tad bit worried.

"Who cares? He'll probably have Jet's life ruined in some way or another. If I'm lucky maybe he'll do something really wretched to Zuzu," Azula said nonchalantly.

"If Zuko got hurt would your mom know?" Ty Lee asked and Azula froze.

Azula was quiet for a second, "No my mother would not know of anything that happened." Ty Lee just nodded, and Azula snapping out of it said, "Ugh, I'm going to be late. I'll see you tomorrow. Remember what I said, and tell me anything you hear." The two girls started to walk down the stairs and into the living room where Lili was watching Spongebob. The younger Chang girl turned her head and said, "See ya later crazy lady."

Azula fumed and was about to say something but Ty Lee jumped in. "Don't worry about her, just get home for dinner with your dad," she said in a calming voice and surprisingly Azula listened and left. She did however send a death glare at the young girl who merely smiled and waved. When the door was shut Ty Lee made her way over to the couch and sat down next to her little sister with a sigh.

"You know you could try to be nice to her," Ty Lee said. "She's one of my best friends. You don't say mean things to Mai when she's over, or to Jia or our other sisters' friends."

Lili kept staring at the television screen, "That's because Mai's nice, and our sisters' friends don't treat them like dirt. Azula's mean to everyone, even you, and she uses people. I don't know why you want to be friends with her so bad." To punctuate the sentence she stuffed a cookie in her mouth.

Ty Lee had to think about that one; in a way Lili was right but there were good things about Azula...really there were. "Azula needs me and Mai Lil' just like we need her. She's got kind of a messed up life. Maybe you'll understand when you're older." The older girl got up and started walking back in the direction of the basement to go practice her routine again. As she was walking away Lili called after her, "You can't always fix something that's broken Ty."

Ty Lee paused but when Lili didn't add anything more she made her way downstairs. Considering most of their daughters had been or were cheerleaders or dancers, the Chang's spacious basement had been turned into a dance studio and gymnastics room. It was complete with a balance beam, hardwood floors and large mirrors. Today Ty Lee was working on her cheer-leading dance routine for the upcoming game. She walked over to the small CD player sitting in the corner and clicked to track six. Starstruck by Lady Gaga began to play and she began her opening moves.

While she danced though, she thought of what Lili had said about Azula and not always being able to fix something broken. As much as she wanted to brush off her little sister's words she couldn't help but see the sense in them. _"Sometimes it's weird how my nine year old sister can sound so mature," _She thought as she twirled.

* * *

Dinner was a quiet, stiff occasion at the Sozin household usually. Sometimes Zuko would murmur something under his breath and that would set Ozai off on a tangent. But tonight Zuko was not there of course so the room was almost dead silent. All that could be heard was the scraping of forks and knives. Ozai had gone through the motions of being a good parent, he had asked how Azula's day went, how was her indoor soccer season going, among other things. Azula played her role and answered his questions when deep down she knew she might as well have been talking to herself. Her father never truly listened, he just knew exactly when to nod at the right times.

Back when Ursa was still living with them dinner was different. The food was always made by her, not ordered or made by the maid. When her mother would ask her about her day Azula knew that it was because Ursa really and truly wanted to know. She would never admit it, but there were a lot of times when Azula missed her mom. They hadn't heard from her in years, Azula didn't even know if her mother was still in the country. She didn't dwell on the topic of her mother being gone unlike Zuko; instead she decided to get attention from her father. That's when things clicked in her mind. Azula knew how to get her father's attention.

"Father? I have some news that may interest you, about Zuko," Azula said sweetly and bravely. Zuko's name hadn't been brought up since he left the house, much like Ursa's hadn't. Ozai slowly raised his head, annoyance was painted all over his face. "What could Zuko have possibly done to interest me?" he snarled.

Azula wasn't scared, she merely leaned back in her chair and grinned like the Cheshire cat, "He's been hanging around a certain group of people."

* * *

"Jet come on, you have to go home," Katara giggled as Jet nuzzled her neck through the window of the Kuruk's apartment.

"That didn't sound to convincing," he said in a husky tone. He was about to go back to what he was doing when she placed her hands on his chest and pushed him back lightly. "You've got to get going. My dad's going to be home soon and if he sees you and me doing this he's not going to be happy. Plus it's getting late and the Raiders might be out," she said in a more stern tone of voice.

Katara was stubborn just like he was and in this case he knew she was right. "Alright I'm going. See you tomorrow?" Katara smiled, "Definitely." He leaned in and placed one light kiss on her lips, "Bye." He started to make his way down the fire escape he had been standing on barely making a sound as he descended until he was finally gone. Katara closed her bedroom window slowly so she wouldn't wake up her Gran Gran. Sokka she wasn't worried about since he could sleep through anything. After she felt the coast was clear she lay down on her small bed and smiled to herself.

For once in her life, things seemed to be going good. Sokka was slowly starting to feel better after Yue's accident, Katara felt that they had Suki to thank for that. Her father was even starting to come home earlier so they started to see more of him. True that meant Katara got to see less of Jet but it was all right. Hakoda would flip if he knew his little girl was doing something dangerous like seeing a boy from Terra.

Overall though, she couldn't complain. Life was good, but the one problem was that whenever life started to seem good the Raiders got in the way. A chill went up her spine as she quickly thought of Jet who was on his way back to Ember to stay with Zuko. She hoped he wouldn't get himself into trouble. She looked out her window at the full moon and sighed. "Watch over him Yue, okay?"

Katara's door creaked open revealing her Gran Gran, "Katara honey what are you still doing up?"

Katara smiled, "Nothing Gran, just couldn't sleep I guess."

Her grandmother shrugged, "Alright then, you're father's home so I'm heading back to my apartment now. I'll see you tomorrow and try to get some sleep." Katara nodded in response and just as Kanna was about to turn around she whispered, "Oh and one more thing: you might want to tell that boy to be quieter on his way down the escape. If I can hear him your father definitely can and you don't want him finding out now do you?" Kanna smiled at her blushing granddaughter and said, "Goodnight dearie!" With that she closed her door and made her way into the living room where Hakoda was drinking tea. He looked at the old woman and asked, "I heard you talking to Katara, is she alright? Was she having a nightmare?"

Kanna laughed and Hakoda looked even more confused. "She was having exactly the opposite," Kanna said vaguely, she patted Hakoda on the shoulder and left the house leaving the man alone in the living room.

* * *

Zuko waited on the back steps for Jet to come back and he was getting impatient. It was late, almost midnight and it was freezing outside. No matter how uncomfortable he was though he would sit on the cold stone stoop until the Terra boy came back. Why was he waiting for Jet to come home? To save the smug brown-haired boy's ass that's why. Zuko would be there to open the door when Jet showed up in hopes that that way Jet wouldn't wake up the neighbors by banging on the door. If anyone saw Jet and found out he wasn't from Ember, there would be hell to pay.

A cold wind swept through the alley sending a shiver through Zuko's spine, 'If Jet's not back in five minutes he's on his own.' Just then Iroh's Honda pulled into the back alley with a bit of unecessary noise. Jet cut the lights and hopped out of the car looking quite happy with himself. Zuko however was just annoyed, "Do you know what time it is Jet?"

Jet shrugged, "I don't know, midnight maybe. Why did I break curfew dad?" he said sarcastically while still maintaining the happy look on his face.

Zuko wasn't amused as usual, "No I just hate sitting here freezing my ass off waiting for you to come back from making out with Katara."

Jet sat down next to Zuko on the concrete step, "You say that like it happens a lot." Zuko looked at the other boy with a serious face. "Jet if someone finds out about you sneaking off to the Districts it could be bad for all of us. My uncle, Lu Ten, Jun, even Katara. I'm not saying don't go see her just be a little more discreet about it."

Jet's smile faded, he hadn't thought about that, "'Kay, you're right. Tonight's the last night though. I go back tomorrow, Smellerbee says Long Feng's been getting cocky again so they're gonna need some help." Zuko nodded. It was quiet for a bit, the two teens just sat there looking down the desolate alleyway until Jet spoke in a low whisper. "You don't think they'd really go after Katara, you know if anyone found out?"

"Jet, my dad made up lies about my mom to keep her away remember? I have no idea where he draws the line," Zuko replied and Jet cursed under his breath. The brown haired boy got up from his spot and walked over to an empty crate near the dumpster. He kicked it making with a loud crashing sound and startled Zuko. The Sozin teen stood up, "Jet! Cut it out! Do you want the Raiders to find you?!"

Jet spun around to face Zuko, "And so what if they do Zuko? I'll fight whoever comes! I'm sick of having to listen to rules, and I'm fucking sick of being forced to be scared of some jerk-offs who run around thinking that they run this town!" Jet screamed the last part. After that there was silence. The wind howled in the small alleyway between the two boys then Zuko spoke softly, "I am too, but what can we do about it?"

"We could fight back. Why not? Ember's got The Raiders, Terra's got the Dai Lee, I've even heard rumors of a gang in the Districts called the Wolf Warriors. Why not have our own? Not necessarily a gang but like an anti-gang," Jet said a bit more quietly this time but just as fiercely.

Zuko was speechless, sure he hated the underground rules of the city as much as any of his other new friends, but he also knew what the consequences were for anyone who went up against those gangs. Mostly it ended in death or torture that made you wish you were dead. Zuko looked at Jet and his brain was telling him that it was a dumb and pointless idea. Something else though ignited in him when he heard Jet's words. Why not start a riot in father's great scheme of things? Zuko knew a lot of valuable information about the Raiders and a bit about the Dai Lee too. They could get others involved too, kids who were sick of the system just as much as they were.

Jet stood staring fiercely at Zuko, steam coming out of his mouth and disappearing into the cold night air. Zuko smirked, "I think it's a good idea." The black haired boy stuck his hand out for Jet to take. Jet smiled, took Zuko's hand and said, "Well alright then. Let's get out of this damn weather then huh?"

With that the boys walked back into The Jasmine Dragon and the alley was left still and silent. Until a figure in black stiletto boots and a black coat emerged from down the alleyway. Azula laughed quietly to herself, "Run along now Zuzu. Have fun with your rebels but remember that I always get what I want."

* * *

Whew! That chapter took FOREVER!! I had writer's block like five times while writing it!! Well anyway, thanks for reading and reviews would be a wonderful Christmas present!


	13. Chapter 13

I own nothing but the plot!

Again I want to thank my two little reviewers Demeter and Luna Cat Kitty who keep this story going! And I want to apologize for how slow the plot and updates are coming. =/ Really I swear I am getting to a point!

* * *

It was after nine on Wednesday and Jet stood outside the white house where chaos lived. After hanging around school and fencing he had gone back to the Jasmine Dragon with Zuko to say goodbye to Jun and humbled himself by thanking Iroh and Lu Ten. Zuko had drove him most of the way back, Jet had told him to drop him off about a block away from the Laogai home so Long Feng couldn't see who it was. Now as get stood in front of the door he couldn't help but miss the cafe just a little. He had to admit it was nice not having to be prepared for a fight twenty four-seven. But he knew that it couldn't last forever so he took a deep breath and opened the door to find that the house was quiet. This was a rare thing so Jet was already wary of the atmosphere. He felt his body slip into his defensive mode.

Thinking maybe he could get up to his room without having to see the greasy haired man he sprinted silently towards the stairs. "Not so fast smart ass," Long Feng drawled from the dining room. 'Shit." was the only word Jet could think of, he weighed his options: duke it out with Long Feng or just continue up to his room to later duke it out with his foster dad. "Don't even think about it Jet, I know you're standing on the steps now get your ass in here."

That was the last thing Jet wanted to do but then he remembered the last words Jun said to him back at Iroh's.

* * *

_They were standing in Jun's room awkward and silent. Both had never really been one for tearful goodbyes and they didn't really know what to say. Hallmark didn't exactly have a card for sending your younger brother back to an abusive home. Finally Jet spoke, "I don't want you to worry Jun. I'll be fine, really you don't have to worry." _

_The black haired woman smirked, "I'm not worried, I know you can handle the bastard. I just wish you didn't have to go back." Jet nodded, "Yeah, me too. But some one has got to help them out back there. You've done you're time." _

_Jun still didn't look happy, she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed and her hair hiding half her face. Jun never looked worried but after living with her for a few years Jet had learned to tell when she really was scared and now was one of those times. He smiled a real smile, "I'll be fine, really. So will Smellerbee and the others." Jun gave him a half smile and pulled her little brother who wasn't so little anymore into a rare hug. He returned the hug but said, "I better get going." Jun nodded and the to left the room and walked down the stairs where Iroh was waiting tables. There was no sign of Zuko or Lu Ten but before either of them could ask Iroh shouted, "Downstairs!" while balancing a tray full of dishes while trying to navigate around some tables. The old man was having some trouble too, so Jet did something Jun never would have expected. He dropped his book bag and walked over and took the tray off of Iroh's hands._

_"I got it Mr. Sozin, you want me to put it in the back?" Jet asked already walking in that direction. "Yes thank you young man," Iroh said with a smile as he looked at Jun who smiled back. "Why don't you two go get Zuko and Lu Ten up here?" Iroh called as he walked back to the cash register. _

_"Alright," Jun and Jet answered at the same time. They walked down to the basement training room to hear loud slapping sounds. "You gotta be quicker than that Zuzu!" Lu Ten said happily. Lu Ten had his cousin in a headlock and Zuko did not look happy at all. "I don't have to be quick," Zuko grunted, he then flipped Lu Ten over his back. Lu Ten looked shocked as he lay on the floor. Zuko stood over him with a light hearted smile and said, "I've just gotta be stronger than you." _

_Before Lu Ten could respond Jun said, "Aright jerks, Jet has to go home now so you to can stop rolling around with each other for a bit. One of you has to take him home." _

_"Oh come on Jun you know you enjoyed it," Lu Ten said from his spot on the floor. Zuko offered him a hand and pulled the older Sozin up. "Oh yeah 'cause I just love to watch men roll around and tackle each other. Mmm delicious!" Jun said sarcastically._

_Lu Ten laughed and Zuko chuckled, "I'll take you home." He picked up a black hoodie that lay on the floor and threw it on. Lu Ten walked over, "Been a pleasure to have you Jet. You're a good kid." The two shook hands. "Thanks, you're not so bad yourself Sozin. And thanks for looking out for Jun," He whispered the last part as Jun and Zuko aruged about work shifts. Lu Ten shrugged, "It's not a very hard job. She holds her own pretty well." Jet nodded._

_"No way! I covered for you last night and I have school tomorrow. You take the late shift!" Zuko yelled. Jun just smirked with the rest of her face still hidden. "Yo Sozin, quit fightin' you're never gonna win against her. Let's get out of here," Jet said popping a tooth pick in his mouth that he got out of his pocket. _

_"See he knows what he's talking about. Get out of here before I lose my temper with you," Jun said giving him a shove. Zuko brushed past Jet murmuring something annoyed sounding. "See you guys," Jet called as he began to walk up the steps. _

_"Oh Jet one more thing," Jun said. Jet turned around to look down at her, Lu Ten standing beside her. "If Long Feng gives you any trouble, tell him Jun says hi," was all she said and Lu Ten had to keep himself from laughing, grinning from ear to ear. Jet smiled, "Alright, I'll remember." _

_Jun watched as the two teens ascended up the stairs, she had the same look on her face that she wore up in her room when sh__e said goodbye to Jet. Although he hadn't lived with her as long as Jet had, Lu Ten had learned how tell when she was uncomfortable. His hand brushed hers, "Hey, he'll be fine." Jun nodded a couple times, with one arm Lu Ten pulled her into a half hug. She rested her head on his shoulder and muttered, "Thanks." _

* * *

Jet smiled, the tooth pick still in his mouth and walked into the dining room to see Long Feng sitting at the head of the table with his usual scotch in his hand. He looked at the the smirking boy and scowled. "What are you so damn happy about?"

Jet snapped into a military pose, mock saluted and barked, "Sir! Nothing! Sir!" The teen watched in amusement as Long Feng's face grew a shade redder and his knuckles whitened as they gripped the glass of scotch. This only happened for a couple seconds and then Long Feng relaxed a little, "You want to tell me where you've been the last few days?"

"A friend's house," Jet said simply. Due to long years of living under Long Feng Laogai's strict surveillance, Jet had memorized what the man's standard questions were and he'd known to always have some form of alibi. This usually came in the form of Suki or Haru. Jet had a feeling though that his foster dad had done his homework this time.

Long Feng sniffed, "Really? Now which friend would this be? I'll have to call their parents and thank them for taking a brat like you off my hands for a few days." The man sounded cocky, 'He knows something,' Jet thought. 'Might as well hang onto this story as long as possible. Just keep calm.' Jet stuck his hands in his coat pockects and gave Long Feng the one word answer of, "Haru." Jet would have to fill in the farm boy as soon as possible.

Long Feng snickered, "Try again smart-ass. I already checked in with the Dows. Haru's mother told me she hadn't seen you in days."

Shit.

Jet tried to think quick. "Well your Excellency I didn't want to break it to you like this but Suki and I eloped over the weekend. We wanted to keep it quiet though, we had Longshot and Toph be the witnesses. Sorry we didn't invite you, I figured you wouldn't want to go considering your horrible allergy to you know, any happiness what so ever. Suki and I didn't want you to kill the mood on our happy time."

That was what started it. Long Feng performed his signature form of attack and launched the still full glass of scotch at Jet. The teen ducked just in time making the glass shatter against the wall behind him. The amber liquid left to drip slowly down the walls. Jet looked at the aftermath of Long Feng's actions and winced mockingly. "Ooh Fengie look at what you did? That's sure to leave a stain. What will the neighbors think?"

The older man launched himself at his foster son. Jet tried to dodge him but this time Long Feng caught him, a rare occasion. Long Feng tackled him to floor and pinned him there. Pushing Jet's face into the hardwood floor he growled, "How dare you insult my intelligence with a lie! You've disrespected me for the last time you worthless piece of shit!" Jet didn't say a thing, he just tried to get out from under Long Feng with little success too. The boy was wishing he had thought up something other than the Suki story. Jet heard the sound of scraping on the floor and felt Long Feng's weight shift on top of him. He took this opportunity to try and wriggle free but Long Feng just laughed at the attempt.

"Oh I don't think so Jet. You can't worm your way out of this one, no I'll make sure of that." Long Feng said tauntingly. Out of the corner of his eye Jet saw the reflection of a jagged piece of broken glass. Stupid scotch. Long Feng laughed maniacally again, "You know I've grown tired of your constant ungrateful behavior. You have such potential Jet to be the perfect fighter. You just need to listen to what I say."

It was Jet's turn to laugh, "Gee sorry I don't live up to standards Dad." Long Feng just snarled, "I'm not your father kid. I imagine yours is real disappointed in you. How unruly you've become."

That struck a chord with Jet. The smile was wiped from his face and his eyebrows furrowed. He received a huge rush of adrenaline and planted his hands firmly on the ground and bucked Long Feng off his back. The man rolled to the floor ending with a low thud, and Jet quickly picked up another broken piece of glass. He planted his foot on Long Feng's chest and roughly pushed him down with it.

He knelt down and held the shard of glass close to the man's neck and growled, "Listen, you don't know anything about me or my dad and never will. I'll never be a product of yours. Which is why out of the kindness of my heart, I'm going to let you live. Next time I might not be feeling so generous so I'd watch what you say to me."

Jet lifted his foot off of Long Feng who was panting heavily now. He stood up and tossed the broken glass to the side as he sauntered out of the dining room. As he was leaving he called over his shoulder, "Oh yeah and Jun says hi."

Jet didn't turn around but if he had he would have seen the man's eyes widen and a slight look of fear make its way across his face. Jet didn't care, he was tired and all he wanted to do was go to sleep even though it was still pretty early for him. Fighting took a lot out of you especially if you were fighting with a not-so-healed wound. He walked slowly up the stairs and stared down at his feet until he got to the top to see a small pair of eyes staring back at him. The Duke.

The small boy's face was blank as he sat on the top step. This was a rare look for The Duke and Jet didn't like it at all. Jet smiled, "Hey buddy what's new?"

"Is Jun really okay?" was all The Duke said keeping his face blank as he stared at the older boy. Jet knelt down to the boy's level and whispered, "Yeah, she's just fine Duke. She says 'hey'."

The boy leaned in and whispered roughly, "It's THE Duke. Where has she been?"

"Sorry little man can't tell ya. It's not safe yet but you will see her again, she promises," Jet said and The Duke's face immediately brightened. "Good. She made made better sandwiches than Sneers does," said The Duke.

"This is true, Sneers doesn't make a good sandwich at all. I'll make your sandwich tomorrow, go finish up your homework now though okay? Go play video games or something," Jet said.

The Duke sighed, "Fine I'll go finish the stupid math." The boy got up and walked into the room he shared with Sneers but turned when he got to the door. "Oh Jet? It's good you're back," he didn't wait for a response before disappearing into his room.

Jet got up when he hear The Duke's door close. He walked past Smellerbee's room and thought about going in just to let her know he was back but thought better of it. Her door was closed and when Bee's door was closed you didn't go in. The door to his room was open slightly so he opened it quietly and was welcomed by the sight of Longshot sitting straight up doing chemistry homework in his own bed which was neatly made, Jet's wasn't.

Jet nodded at his friend and said, "Hey man what's up?" Jet didn't expect a verbal answer but Longshot did arch an eyebrow at the boy. Longshot didn't talk much but he definitely heard everything that went on in the house. Jet shrugged and rolled his eyes, "Relax, I didn't do too much damage. Long Feng just got what he deserved for once." Jet flopped down on his messy bed while Longshot narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "I promise Longshot nothing bad happened. Just chill out, you'll give yourself an ulcer or something." The black haired boy's face softened and Jet said, "Yeah I'm glad to be back too actually. Now if you don't mind not making a whole lot of noise I'm just going to go to bed now." Longshot smiled silently as Jet rolled over on his good side but before he fell asleep Jet muttered, "Oh yeah, Bee's door was closed. She okay?" Longshot just gave him a confused look and shrugged. Jet hadn't even waited for the other boy's response before he was snoring lightly.

Longshot's face pulled down into a frown as soon as Jet was asleep. Deciding homework could wait he put his chem. book aside and silently stepped out of the room. He walked down the short hall and listened outside of Smellerbee's room, he didn't want to wake her if she was sleeping. She wasn't. He heard the soft sound of someone trying to hide the fact that they're crying. Without knocking he walked in to see Bee curled up in the corner with her head in her hands. He walked over and sat up straight in front of her. Smellerbee picked her head up to see who it was and that was when Longshot found out just why she was crying. A fresh bruise had bloomed around her right eye. With a fist she wiped tears away from one of her eyes and upon seeing Longshot's disgruntled look she covered up her eye with the other.

"It's not that bad really. I've had worse," Smellerbee said in her raspy voice. 'Not on your face,' Longshot thought and Smellerbee remained silent knowing she didn't have an answer for that one. Longshot reached out and put a hand on her shoulder and with his eyes asked, 'Why?'

Smellerbee sighed, "I failed another Geometry test. I got cocky when he yelled and said it was his fault for putting me in the class. I shouldn't be in and advanced class, I still didn't get Algebra last year." Longshot could work out all the other details on his own but Smellerbee added, "He called me stupid." Not the worst name she'd been called but he knew it still hurt. His hand moved down her arm and took her hand and squeezed it. 'You're not stupid. I think you might be the smartest person here,' he thought and gave her a very small smile. As if knowing what he said, Bee squeezed his hand back and smiled too. "Thanks Longshot."

'Anytime Bee,' he thought.

* * *

"That is interesting news Azula. Very interesting indeed," purred Ozai from behind his oak desk in his office. Azula stood upright across from her father having just explained what she had witnessed the night before. She would have told Ozai when she had gotten home but she had found the house empty by the time she had gotten back probably out with the new secretary for this week.

"You're certain the boy with Zuko was from Terra?" Ozai sad with an evil smile that said it didn't matter if Azula was sure or not if Jet was from Terra at this point. Ozai didn't just have a lust for women but a thirst for destroying lives as well. Once Ozai wanted something he didn' give up on it. Jet Durden and Jun Shirshu were going to be very unhappy one way or another, that was for certain.

"I'm absolutely positive father," Azula stated. "They had been staying with uncle Iroh for awhile it sounded like," she finished making Ozai's smile grow more twisted.

"Oh this is rich! Very exciting indeed Azula. And of course they deserve to be punished," Ozai said his eyes narrowing making him look all the more dangerous.

"Of course, would it be to bold of me as to ask how they are going to dealt with?" Azula asked mimicking her father's look. Ozai laughed a horrible laugh and leaned back in his chair. "Well I am going to leave you to deal with the Durden boy as a reward," he said and Azula grinned like the chesire cat. "As for your uncle, cousin, and your brother I'll have to consider my options with some of my colleagues. Would you like to stay while we discuss?"

He of course meant the head of The Raiders. Azula had never been allowed to sit in on the meetings before. Ozai though as twisted and devious as he was still had fears. He never let his children sit in on the discussions for fear that a leak would get out about them knowing. They'd get captured and then he'd have to pay a ransom and that was something he did not want to deal with. Zuko had never shown any interest in the gang talk but Ozai would have to practically barricade her in her room sometimes in order for her not to sneak in. Azula considered it a great honor to be invited in.

"I would love to father, thank you." she stated formally. Her father nodded and then got up to walk across the room and open the door to his office. In walked three large men in black hoodies with the hoods pulled up. They remained silent until Ozai said, "Azula will be joining us today and in whatever meeting she so pleases from now on gentlemen. Get used to it. Now to business, I have an assignment for you men the targets being: Iroh Sozin, Lu Ten Sozin, Zuko Sozin, and Jun Shirshu. Handle it in any way you want just get it done."

One of them men asked, "What about Zuko?" Azula recognized the voice, Coach Zhao. "Did I stutter Zhao? He is no longer my son so do with him what you will." Zhao nodded in understanding. "And what about the other children who Zuko has been hanging around? I can't inflict anything on them at the school but when will you let me take care of them?" Zhao asked sounding impatient.

"I'm going to let Azula plan that one. But not tonight, right now I want you to put your focus toward the blood traitors and Long Feng Laogai's whore understood?" Ozai demanded. The men nodded. "You are free to go," Ozai said finally and without a word Zhao and his men left the room. Once the door was closed Ozai turned to his daughter, "Can I trust you with this mission?"

"With your life father," Azula said proudly.

"I thought so. Now run off and do whatever homework you may have," Ozai said and Azula walked out of the room feeling rather please with herself. When the door clicked closed Ozai's sleek phone rang with Long Feng's number appearing. He answered only to have Long Feng scream from the other line. "Ozai! I thought you were going to take care of that nephew of yours and have Jun back under my control by now! I just had Jet saunter in here all cocky and embarrass me in front of my children. That was not pleasant Ozai!"

Ozai pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "Long Feng my men have their orders you can't rush perfection."

A sigh came from the other end of the line. "Well if you could hurry it along it would be greatly appreciated your highness," Long Feng spat with venom in his voice.

"It is being dealt with Long Feng," Ozai stated firmly. White noise was all that could be heard through the reciever. "Oh and Mr. Laogai, it that is all I want you to know that if you ever question me again my nephew will be right. You will lose your protection and become the top priority of The Raiders believe me." Not waiting for an answer Ozai hung up the phone and went to work on some other contracts. All in a days work.

* * *

Well that was exhausting! Now I'm off to fill out scholarship stuff =( Well review and let me know how you guys are liking it. Once I've got all this scholarship stuff done and quit my job I might be able to update more frequently but I'm not going to make any promises.


	14. Chapter 14

Don't own Avatar The Last Airbender, never have never will.

Thank You to all that reviewed and to Kristoshi Warrior for adding this story to their alerts! You guys are awesome!

* * *

It was the first Saturday in long time that she hadn't gotten dragged to some stupid function where her family had made plans with some ambassador to discuss Sozin Corp. It had been even longer since she hadn't had go practice with her private fencing tutor in on a Saturday. She didn't even remember the last time she woke up in her own bed on a Saturday morning. How was Mai Kwan spending her Saturday? Babysitting her accident brat of a brother named Tom Tom because her parents had decided to go on vacation and not take her or Tom Tom with.

Mai was sitting on the floor flipping through the new issue of_ AP Press _trying to block out whatever show Tom Tom was watching on the shiny flat screen tv when the door bell rang. Tom Tom who had been all but glued to the screen upon hearing the doorbell ring turned his head away from PBS and his eyes started to well up with tears. Mai held her breath silently praying that what she thought was about to happen wouldn't. It did. Tom Tom burst into loud, messy tears and it only got worse when the doorbell rang a second time. She rolled her grey eyes and scooped the screaming child up. An annoyed sounding knock banged on the door. "I'm coming!" she yelled and hoped to God it wasn't a salesman. She didn't feel like dealing with cheesy smiles and bad suits at the moment.

When she opened the door it was in fact not a salesman but Azula and Ty Lee dressed like they just walked out of Dante's were standing in her doorway. "What are you guys doing here? I told you I can't do anything this weekend so no I'm not going out to Dante's or shopping."

"Oh calm down Mai, I'm not here to force a social life down your skinny throat. I have some information you might find interesting," Azula said pushing past the taller girl and her rather upset younger brother. "And can you get him to stop that? It's really annoying." Azula was now carelessly tossing her red leather jacket over one of the white suede armchairs in the Kwan's large living room earning a glare from Mai. Most of the time Mai put up with the things Azula said and did but there were times when she felt it wouldn't hurt Azula to be backhanded across the face. Now was one of those times.

"I can't exactly switch him off Azula. And take off your boots, my mom will have an aneurysm if she finds any dirt on the carpet," Mai said as Ty Lee took Tom Tom from her. Ty Lee kicked off her glittery pink ballet flats while Azula just sank into one of the armchairs and swung her stiletto heeled feet over one of the arms. Tom Tom meanwhile had ceased his crying while Ty Lee proceeded to make faces at him on the white couch. "There now that it's quieter we can discuss some important matters at hand," Azula said.

Mai groaned, usually when Azula said that it meant she was planning on terrorizing some of the freshmen from Central or the Districts. Recently that just didn't sound as appealing as it used to. Mai tried to ignore the fact that it was probably because she had noticed Zuko hanging out with kids from those areas. "I don't feel like making Central kids cry today Azula. It's the first weekend where I don't have to do anything so I was planning on keeping it that way."

Mai was about to tell Azula to get out when Azula snapped, "What is it with you lately? You've been more depressing than usual and I get that Zuko getting kicked out upset you, but you've got to get over him Mai. Really he's nothing special."

Mai's grey eyes narrowed at Azula who chuckled, "Ooh did I strike a nerve? Have finally understood what emotions are?"

With that Tom Tom started crying again and Azula shot him a glare and then said "Ty Lee you already know my proposal so why don't you take the little brat upstairs so Mai and I can discuss." Ty Lee quietly did what Azula said and walked down the hall and up the stairs to Mai's room but the last thing she heard was Mai say, "If you want my help with whatever it is you're planning you're going about it all wrong. Now why the hell did you come here Azula."

Tom Tom kept screaming as Ty Lee plunked him down on Mai's charcoal gray bed. "Oh Tommy boy it's okay, 'Zula and Mai are just having a grown-up talk and those are boring so why don't we play with..." Ty Lee trailed off as she looked around the room for something that might interest the two year old but came up blank considering that's exactly what Mai's room was. Blank. Ty Lee had only been in her friend's room a few time since they became friends in first grade and not much had changed. Same stark white walls and carpet, one dresser, a closet in the corner of the room and a black nightstand next to the full size bed. Nothing that would indicate that Mai had an interest in anything what so ever. However Ty Lee knew for a fact that Mai had a stash of fancy knives hidden in a "memory box" under her bed which she had bought off of ebay. Her collection of _AP Press _also was hidden under the bed.

Ty Lee didn't need an explanation as to why this stuff was hidden. Mai had uber strict parents who definitely wouldn't approve of their daughter's fascination with daggers and other pointy things. They had been trying to enlist Mai in cotillion groups and pagents since she could walk and Ty Lee had seen the embarrassing pics and on more than one occasion had threatened to put them up on facebook. But for the first time Ty Lee felt bad for her friend. Mai had such a controlled life, her parents expecting nothing but excellence in school and fencing and Azula who let's face just expected a lot from everyone. She seriously didn't have a time where she could just be free.

She was snapped out of her thoughts when she realized things were quiet, too quiet. Tom Tom had waddled over to the door and was trying to reach the door knob. Thinking that Azula must have finished up by now Ty Lee opened the door and the two walked out of the room and headed back down the stairs. They walked back into the room only to see that neither of the girls had moved from their spots both with serious looks on their faces.

"And if I refuse?" was all Ty Lee heard Mai say. To say the cheerleader was shocked was an understatement. No body ever refused Azula, ever. It just wasn't done.

If Azula was amazed at all by Mai's statement she kept it well hidden. "I wouldn't advise it," was all she said while looking Mai straight in her grey eyes. Mai's face stayed even, "I'm not going to help you this time Azula."

Mai saw Azula's eye twitch for a brief second before the heiress regained her composure. "Alright, if that's the way you want it I won't force you. Come on Ty Lee, lets leave Mai to her lonely day now shall we?" Ty Lee's expression was covered in confusion but she rose from her spot and gave Tom Tom back to his sister. As the two girls were almost out the door Azula spun on her heel and said, "Oh but if you mention any of this to my brother I will make sure you suffer the same fate as him."

"Get out," Mai snarled. Azula smiled, "Just so we're clear Mai." Then she turned back around and walked out the door Ty Lee had opened. Ty Lee looked as if she wanted to say something to Mai but couldn't get the words out before Azula barked, "Let's go Ty Lee."

Ty Lee gave Mai an apologetic glance before following Azula out the door. Mai looked at Tom Tom who just stared back at her with wide eyes. Mai sighed, "And I thought this was going to be a relaxing day."

She put Tom Tom back down in front of the tv where his life seemed to continue on undisturbed. Mai sat down on the couch and scrolled through the few contacts looking for Zuko's number. It didn't take long, Mai didn't like talking to many people so naturally she didn't have a lot of numbers. She stared at Zuko's number for a few seconds, to text or not to text? She looked at her little brother and thought of her family. This was all so complicated now. Truth be told she didn't care about the other kids' fates, mainly just Zuko's. So what if that made her a horrible person, at least she was honest. But she couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt which made her groan in disgust. She lay down on the soft couch cushion and momentarily considered throwing the decorative knife on glossy side table into the wall across from her but it wouldn't be worth the lecture she would get from her parents later. Staring blankly up at the equally blank white ceiling Mai knew only one thought for sure; she had just realized how much she hated Azula.

* * *

~~Monday~~

"And once again I've managed to kick your sorry butt Sokka," Suki said to an angry looking Sokka who was lying flat on his back. She offered him a friendly smile and a hand which he took. Then a sly smile crossed his face, "Oh I don't think so. Not yet anyway." He pulled her down, something Suki later scolded herself for not anticipating. She fell laying on her stomach next to Sokka who was smiling that goofy smile of his.

Suki couldn't help but laugh a little, "That was a jerk-move!"

Sokka grinned even wider, "I know, but it was totally worth it." Suki rolled over onto her back and stared up the ceiling. "I guess we better get going soon. It's getting late," she said even though leaving was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

A new curfew had been set in the city due to "youngsters becoming rebellious." Suki had a feeling that youngsters meant the kids at Element Private who were deciding to break the social rules. It wasn't just her little group anymore, other students had started doing the unthinkable whether it be big or small. For example there were rumors going around that Hahn had been trying to ask out Jin for a couple weeks now but that was only a rumor. What was true was that Raun Jian of all people had stopped a fight where a few kids from Ember had a Terra girl, Meng, cornered. That was something that never happened. So the city decided in order to make sure these actions didn't carry out any further an eight o'clock curfew had been installed.

"I dunno, we could stay a little while longer I think," Sokka said placing his hands behind his head. Suki looked at her companion's carefree smile and wondered out loud, "Why are you like that?"

"Like what?" Sokka asked turning his head to look at her.

"How can you be so relaxed about stuff. It's like you just float or something. How do you do it?" Suki asked. A couple months ago she never would have asked that question but she and Sokka had grown pretty close since then. She even considered him her best friend along with Jet.

"Lots of swimming lessons," Sokka replied resulting in Suki giving him a playful punch to the abs. "I'm serious!" she said while trying to hold back a few laughs. Sokka let out something that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a sigh. "I don't know, I guess I just figured that there's too much serious and not fun stuff going on here so why not try and crack a few jokes or just roll with things."

"Well sometimes just rolling with things isn't the best idea right? I mean someone's got to take a stand sometimes," Suki said.

"Whoa, heavy much Suki? What's up?" Sokka asked while sitting up. Suki remained on the ground, "I'm sorry, it's just the new curfew's been bothering me lately. All the stupid rules this place has has been bothering me. I'm sick of it, I should be able to hang out with the people I want to hang out with. It shouldn't be up to the city or the Raiders on who that is. I mean, all Yue even did was just help a kid try to figure out how to get home is that so bad?" Suki regretted her last sentence when she saw Sokka's face drop. "Sokka I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories," she said rolling onto her side.

"No, it's okay I was real angry too but then I thought at least she went down fighting for something important. I still hate that she died that way but I guess I'm okay with it now. Y'know it had been about a week since I had thought about her? Does that make me a horrible person? I mean she hasn't even been dead for a half a year yet and I'm already not thinking about her," Sokka said. It was the most serious thing he had said to her since their conversation about their moms a couple months ago.

Suki sat up and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, "No it doesn't make you a horrible person. Anyone who knows you Sokka knows how much Yue meant to you and that should be all they need to know. It doesn't matter how long you grieved for her, what matters is what you feel."

"Yeah, and what if I've decided I like someone now? What about that?" Sokka asked, his tone wasn't angry, just curious. Suki was a bit taken aback by his question though, "No, that doesn't make you horrible either. Yue wouldn't have wanted you to be sad forever Sokka. She's probably even happy you've found someone else." Suki was trying to figure out who it could be, "Do you mind if I ask who it is?"

Finally Sokka smiled a half smile, "You know her real well" Suki tried to think of the girls she knew, there were the girls on her volleyball team but they were all from Terra and she didn't think Sokka knew any of them. There was Smellerbee and Jun but those both seemed ridiculous. Lastly there was Toph who could be possible she guessed but that didn't seem right either. "Um Toph?"

Sokka burst out laughing, "You know Suki for an honors student you can be kind of dumb sometimes." He choked out inbetween laughs.

"Come on! Be serious! Who is she?" she demanded while grinning. Finally Sokka stopped laughing, "Well um, you see, she's kind of um, you."

Suki was speechless. Of course she liked Sokka, a lot in fact but it couldn't possibly be her. It would never work, they'd only be able to see each other at school and who knows how long that would even last considering how ridiculous the city was being now. She spoke very calmly, "Sokka I said seriously."

"I _was_serious. I like you Suki," he said and Suki just realized how close his face actually was to hers. "It'd be dangerous," was all she said leaning her forehead against his. "I'm not scared are you?" he said softly. Lots of things were running through Suki's head, all the consequences that could happen, how they would make it work, how sad she would be if it didn't work. Then Suki thought something, she didn't care. She leaned in and captured Sokka's lips. It was a small kiss and when Suki pulled away she said, "Nope. Not scared at all."

"Good," Sokka leaned in to kiss her again only to stumble. Suki had stood up, "Oh no. You have to work for your next one Sokka Kuruk." She had taken a battle stance they had learned earlier next week. Sokka groaned, "You are really going to tire me out aren't you?" He stood up and also took his stance. Suki just smirked, "You'll just have to keep up then."

* * *

~~The Next Morning~~

"So let me get this straight, you two," Sokka pointed at Zuko and Jet from his spot on the padded floor looking a bit confused, "are suggesting that we," he gestured to all the others in the room, "join this gang but it's not really a gang but we're going to stand up against other gangs?"

Jet looked around to all the confused looking faces in the combat room but said with confidence, "Yeah pretty much." Sokka looked at Zuko and the scarred boy who gave a single nod.

"Well I say hells yeah bitches!" Toph yelled and sprang to her feet with her fists clenched. "Gettin' to smash some stupid Raiders heads in sounds like fun." Toph couldn't have looked more excited than in that moment just like how Aang couldn't have looked more uneasy about the whole idea. "I don't know guys this sounds more like something we should let the police handle don't you think?" he asked.

"Oh aren't they doing a wonderful job? No offense Sokka," Toph said getting a shrug from Sokka, "The police can only handle what's in their jurisdiction Twinkletoes so that means the District cops deal only with District issues and the same goes with Terra and Central but the Ember "cops" cough cough the Raider bastards get the last say in any crime punishment. Someone has gotta kick those guys where the sun don't shine so why not us?"

"Because we'll probably get our butts kicked," Haru said.

"Not to mention probably shot," Suki added which earned a vigorous nod from Aang.

"Or dead," Katara said as she stared off into space.

"So we've got a little bit of work to do. Think about it though; we all mostly know how to fight already or at least throw a decent punch. We 've already started something at this place so why not follow through?" Toph said.

"The Raiders don't just fight hand-to-hand, they use guns and knives too. Last time I checked we don't have guns of those nor do most of us want one," Katara said and most of the Terra kids looked away. Except for Toph who blurted back, "That's where you're wrong Sugar Queen; all of us Terra kids here either have one or know how to get one. My pops has a gun collection in his study."

"We have, well had, a shotgun in the barn. Mainly it's just to scare off stupid kids making crop circles," Haru said sheepishly to the ground.

Katara looked at Jet with worried eyes. "I've never seen 'em but I know the 'ol man's got a pair in the basement." Sneers grunted in confirmation.

Suki spoke softly, "My dad bought one after my mom disappeared. It's never been fired though."

"And you guys could just sneak your dad's gun. There problem solved," Toph said.

"NO! Not problem solved," Aang said standing now. "Listen to you, you sound just like the Raiders. Guns don't make the situation better they actually just make it worse. We haven't been learning combat just to throw it all away by resorting to knives and guns."

"I agree with Aang, if we're truly against the Raiders then we don't stoop to their level. We take it back to old school fighting," Zuko finally chimed in making Aang's worried face brighten a little. "If we're going to do this we have to be smart though. We'll have to quicken our agility, be more aware of our surroundings, and know when to back down." Zuko glanced at Jet when he spoke the last part.

Aang shook his head repeatedly, "I still don't think it's a good idea."

"Look it's an in or out thing. We're not gonna make you do anything you don't wanna do Yangchen. But I know that you want peace just as much the rest of us here. I'm tired of living in segregation. Kids shouldn't be scared of doing something as simple as riding the freaking subway. I'm not saying we go looking for the Raiders but if we see those bastards trying to own this place that's when we take them down. Look at what we've already started, enough kids find out about this we could seriously do some damage and show them that they're not superior," Jet said.

A silence fell over them until a certain short girl asked, "Well that was all inspirational and stuff but we're gonna need a bad-ass name. Did you and Sparky think that far ahead Toothpick?"

That's when everyone found their voice; "The Warriors!" Sokka shouted. "Um no, I was thinking the Rumblers," Toph said. "Oh yeah that's a good way to intimidate the enemy. Let's sound like we just danced off the set of West Side Story while snapping our fingers," Sokka said sarcastically while rolling his eyes. This lead to Toph walking straight up to Sokka so she could look him in the eyes and say, "And your idea was just so much better."

"Oh will you two calm down! It's just a stupid name for God's sake. Anyway, how about the Benders? Since we're going around bending the rules? Huh? Huh?" Haru said trying to sound convincing.

"I've got one," Jet said evenly. All heads turned around to him. Toph placed a hand on her hip and said, "Oh yeah well let's hear it. It can't be as bad as the warriors." Sokka narrowed his eyes at her and grumbled something about annoying freshmen.

The corner of Jet's mouth curled up into a half smile, "The Freedom Fighters."

* * *

Whew, wow that took forever! I had writers block I don't know how many times with this one and I'm still not totally satisfied with it. Again my deepest apologies for the wait buut now that it's summer again (yay!) I'm thinking I'll update more regularly especially since I'm getting my own computer soon! ^_^

As always reviews are the bebst way to encourage my muse to write more!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: okay so i just saw the avatar movie and was highly disappointed. I mean I went into the movie knowing it wasn't going to be as awesome as the show seeing as they didn't really do a good job of casting (in my humble opinion) but I thought they would have at least kept the name pronunciation sacred. That plus the fact that Sokka was WAY out of character. In short I wasn't impressed at all.

Well with that aside here's the story!

* * *

"Good work today guys; you're free to go. Remember that we don't have class this Friday so sleep in!" Piandao shouted as his students started to disperse to separate locker rooms and smiled at the scene. Piandao wasn't a blind man, he knew that there had been a change going on in the school and that change was starting to seep out into the city itself. He also knew that his pupils were responsible for it. They tried to hide it but Piandao knew about the talks they had been having before he showed up to class, his hearing was still what it had been when he was twenty, and he couldn't help but worry about the newly named Freedom Fighters as he saw Sokka place a quick but sloppy kiss on the cheek before they parted ways. He was proud of his kids for rebelling against a ridiculous system but was very concerned about the consequences they might endure for it. The Raiders would be keeping a close watch on Zuko and his actions now that Ozai had kicked the boy out. Yes, Piandao knew about the Sozin's connection to The Raiders. He had gone to school with Iroh and Ozai when they were kids and among Ozai's many flaws was his inability not to boast about what he had, at least to the other Ember kids anyway. If Ozai found out these children were planning on uprooting everything the Sozin family had worked for Piandao shuddered to think of what would happen to them.

He tried not to think of it when his youngest fighters, Toph and Aang walking out together. Toph was singing "Get Low" and dancing rather badly. "Come on Twinkletoes! Let me see you get low," she said. Aang blushed and said, "um no that's okay." "Who scared? You scared? Come on let me see those bad-ass moves, oh sorry Mr. Piandao," she added once she realized he was there.

Piandao waved it away, "I didn't hear a thing Miss Bei Fong. You two better get to your lockers though. I'll see you tomorrow." "Bye," they both called as they walked out of the room. As he watched them go the horrible thoughts of what Ozai might do to them entered the master's mind. Aang had improved in his fighting in the last couple of months but Piandao knew that the boy was a peaceful being and might not use his skills until it was too late if confronted. Toph on the other hand would strike without hesitation which worried Piandao as well. He had heard about the girl's run-in with the man named 'The Boulder' and that was proof enough that even though Toph was one of his more skilled fighters she didn't take the time to think that it might be better to flee than fight.

Then his older students walked out. Haru, Zuko, and Jet were all talking and laughing about something that had been on tv last night. He looked at the three boys carefully. Haru was a bit like Aang in the sense that he too was a peacekeeper but Haru did have a bit more of a fighter in him which helped ease Piandao's mind.

One would think that the silent boy named Longshot would fall into this category as well when in reality Piandao was quite impressed with this boy. Longshot was the observant kind and quick too. He could think on his feet, he knew when to fight and when to back down. However there's always an Achilles' Heel and this particular one was named Smellerbee. Piandao had never met Jet and Longshot's foster sister but he knew both boys would rather take a hit than see her get hurt.

His attention turned to Zuko who was actually laughing with Jet about something that Piandao had been too preoccupied to hear. Before he had entered combat class Piandao hadn't seen Zuko laugh and rarely did he smile since Ursa left. That alone reassured the man that these kids weren't doing this just to be rebellious teenagers.

Sokka and Suki had fallen behind the group and were holding hands. Suki was laughing at Sokka who was trying to act smooth by sauntering out of the room. Suki could handle herself. Years of fighting had taught her discipline, not to mention she was a very clever and quick girl. She had a great respect for the art of fighting which was key in her sucess. She knew also that the tables could be turned on her at any moment. One minute she could have the upper-hand in a fight but if one mistake was made it could change the whole outcome entirely. Suki was a student that Piandao didn't really feel he had to worry about so much as the others. And that scared him.

Sokka was smarter than the others gave him credit for. The boy was creative and sometimes creativity alone can be what saves you in a sticky situation. He had improved greatly since his first session with the class right after Yue La Tui died. Sokka was here in her memory which was honorable but again another weakness that could be used against him. All a Raider would have to do to set Sokka off was just mention Yue's name then the boy's adrenaline would kick in and emotions would take over. One of the main rules Piandao had tried to teach his pupils was to not let their emotions take them over in a fight because they cloud your judgement.

They were good together, Sokka and Suki, they balanced each other. They were also very brave to even be attempting this. True it made Piandao smile seeing them together but at the same time it made them an easy target for Ozai's men. Their teacher knew that yes in fact **these violent delights did often have violent ends.**

Katara was still a bit of a mystery to Piandao. He knew that when she first started coming for lessons it was not her idea at all but that quickly changed. Within the first week she had improved tremendously. She had a certain grace to her fighting style and Piandao wasn't entirely sure he could take credit for that. The thing that amazed him the most though was the effect Katara had on Jet. It was no secret that Jet had a quick and explosive temper and before Katara came here Jet would lose it at least twice a week. Now it seemed all the girl had to do was look at the boy when she sensed an uproar in him and he would settle almost immediately. Piandao was glad that the troubled boy had finally found some peace in his life.

Speaking of which, Jet had his arm wrapped around Katara's shoulders. Unlike Sokka and Suki who it seemed were trying to be a little discreet about their relationship, Jet was not scared at all as he kissed the Kuruk girl full on the mouth making her brother frown. No fear, that was Jet's greatest strength and his weakness. He would throw himself into any fight just for the sake of fighting. True, most of the time Jet's skill and speed was what made him victorious in the end but Jet had never really absorbed the idea that maybe one day he might meet someone bigger, faster, and stronger than him. Jet was a good leader a great one in fact. The teen's problem was he didn't know when enough was enough.

In reality, Jet could probably take on a couple Raiders and come out with minor injuries. What worried Piandao was that the other kids couldn't and Jet, being very persuasive, was convincing them that they could take down the whole Raider gang. This was not a realistic suggestion. If these kids went into battle there would most likely be a number of tradgedies. He would not see these kids be murdered because of something the Sozin family was at fault for. He had to at least voice his concerns to Jet.

"Jet, can I have a word?" Piandao barked. Jet and Katara turned around while the others stopped in their tracks. Jet smiled his lopsided grin, "Sure teach, go on guys I'll catch up later." He unhooked himself from Katara and who fell into pace with her brother and Suki with Zuko at her side.

Jet folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, "Look I'm sorry about the little public display of affection there Piandao. I won't do it again." he said his lopsided grin on his face. Piandao matched the boy's stance and said, "I just want to know what you're thinking." Jet looked puzzled, "Um right now I'm a bit confused. I thought you had a question or something."

"I heard about the Freedom Fighters." Piandao said bluntly.

Jet's face remained calm. He nodded and said, "Okay and I guess you're going to tell me it's a horrible idea and I should just stay in Long Feng's house?"

Piandao didn't even blink, "I want you to think about just what you're really going up against for a second. Think of the consequences you and the others might face if you aren't good enough to beat The Raiders."

Jet shrugged, "Look I've thought about it man and honestly I think we can all take getting roughed up a bit by some Ember thugs. You've taught us well after all." The boy smiled trying to be charming but Piandao wouldn't fall for it.

"Hmm you think so?" Piandao struck a fist out before Jet could respond. The teen caught the fist and tried to knee his teacher in the abdomen but Piandao pulled his arm back quickly and swung himself around so that he was behind the boy. He took Jet's arm with him which earned him a grunt from the boy. Jet head-butted Piandao and felt his grip weaken but didn't expect the master to fall forward on top of him. Jet struggled to break free underneath his teacher but stopped because Piandao had hit a pressure point making his upper body go numb. Then Piandao hit another point and Jet couldn't feel his legs anymore.

"Good, now that I have your attention we're going to have a talk," Piandao said sitting cross-legged in front of the boy. "You want to fight the Raiders? This is how they do it, the quick way anyway. They will block your pressure points then have you listen while they discuss how to kill you. They could just simply shoot your brains out if they are feeling merciful. Suffocation is another popular method they use. They might decide to cut long, deep gashes all over your body and let you bleed to death. These are the methods they use most commonly on the people that try to disrupt their balance. You of all people should also know that The Raiders don't only go after the one that's upset them but also their family, their friends, their weak spots. They will make you watch them die before they kill you and that is ten times worse than any harm they could inflict on you."

"Yeah, yeah, I know The Raiders are horrible people, that's why we want to stop them. Plus, didn't you hear me say that we aren't going to go looking for trouble with them? We'll only fight them if we see something going down," Jet shot back at the man.

"You just don't get it! It doesn't matter if you don't go looking for a fight they will get rid of anyone that stands in their path. Almost ten years ago I had another student who wanted to take down the Raiders because not only did they take her mother from her when she was a child, but her boyfriend got kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by them . She got some of her friends to back her up with their guns, they had planned this out for months and everything seemed perfect but the truth was they didn't know enough about gang fighting. She saw her friends get murdered one by one and then later they burned her alive, video-taped it and sent it to her father. This girl was one of my top fighters of all time Jet and even she didn't make it out alive."

Jet didn't buy the teacher's story, "That's an awful lot of detail for a teacher to know. What were you two real close or something?"

Piandao's face dropped and he sighed, "She was my daughter Jet."

Jet's face sobered at that but he was still confused on something, "Wait, you're from Ember. Why would they kill one of their own?"

The master fixed his gaze on the boy, "You'd be surprised at just how many people in Ember aren't proud to say that they're from there. My family had been on the enemies list long before they killed Rhea and my wife. We were put under watch because I had spoken out against The Raiders, threatened them was more like it, and a week later I come to a wrecked home, my wife gone, and my eight year old daughter bound and gagged in a closet."

The teen didn't meet his teacher's gaze this time. Instead he merely mumbled, "Why aren't you telling this to Zuko? He was right beside me on this."

Piandao shot the boy a skeptical look, "I think you and I both know who the real leader of this group is. That and Zuko knows exactly what he's going up against. He will know when it's time to back down. What he can get away with and what he can't. He won't try to push the limits. I'm speaking to you because I don't think you fully grasp the risks you are taking. They won't go for you first Jet they will go for the smaller ones. Aang and Toph will be the first followed by Smellerbee. The if they really do their homework a way to get at you and Sokka would be Katara."

Again Jet was confused, "Why would they punish Sokka? He's not leading this group it's me and Zuko."

"That won't matter to them. In their eyes Sokka would be on his second strike. He would have reason for revenge because of Yue. The Raiders rarely give you three strikes. The only reason they would leave you alive is so that you could wish you were dead."

The room was silent for awhile. When it didn't seem like Jet had an argument anymore Piandao walked over to the boy's frozen form and hit the pressure points again. Jet sat up and looked at his master who said evenly, "You are the best fighter I've had since my daughter Jet and that includes your sister Jun who I know neither of us would cross if we valued our lives. Despite everything I just told you I admire that you guys are trying to take a stand. I strongly advise against it because I don't want to lose any more kids to those bastards you got that? If you do decide to go through with this _you _have to know when it's time to back down and run. You're a good leader Jet and those kids will listen to you. Don't lead them into anything they can't handle are we clear?"

Jet looking solemn just nodded once. That was enough for Piandao, "Good. Now get to homeroom before you're late." Without a word Jet stood up and went on his way. Piandao watched him walk down the hallway until he rounded the corner to the Junior hall. The man rubbed his forehead and made his way to his office part of the combat room. He sat down at his desk and dialed a number on his phone. He drummed his fingers softly until Iroh picked up on the other end.

"Piandao! How wonderful to hear from you my friend but isn't school in session?" Iroh's happy voice said from the other line.

"School can wait, we have a rebellion brewing among us. They will need our help so alert the others and tell them to keep an eye out. We will need a meeting t be called. I can tell Hama and Bumi but you better talk to Jeong Jeong and Pakku."

"Hmm I see. Well maybe the odds will be in our favor this time," Iroh said.

Piandao let a small smile creep across his face, "Yes perhaps. We'll talk more later."

"Goodbye my friend!" Iroh said and hung up the phone. Jun who had been setting up the cash register called, "Why was ol' Piandao calling? Students planning a mutiny or something?"

Iroh smiled, "You could say that."

* * *

Mai looked around the cafeteria for a spot to sit. Breaking off from Azula had seemed like a good idea at the time but then Mai remembered this morning that Azula and Ty Lee were her only friends and the three of them didn't exactly have a friendly reputation...well maybe Ty Lee did but that was for different reasons. As Mai stood with her back to her regular corner with the other girls she could feel Azula's mocking glare burn into her back. She almost thought of ditching the tray and escaping to the library for the rest of the period but then she caught a glimpse of a familiar scar.

Zuko and Jet were walking to the lunch line together talking about something and looking serious. _'Well it's an option that includes getting to eat.' _She waited until the boys had gotten their lunch and tapped the black haired one on the shoulder. He turned around and smiled, "Mai, what's up?" What was this? Zuko didn't smile! He was Zuko! Her depressed, angry at the world Zuko and here he was smiling. _'The world is officially going to end.' _It wasn't until Jet snapped his fingers and barked, "Ay! Kwan! You got somethin' to say?" that she realized she hadn't said anything yet.

She shot Jet a stone cold glare and turned to Zuko and said, "I was just wondering if you had room at your table?"

Jet scoffed and rolled his eyes earning another glare but this one was from Zuko. "Yeah we've got an extra spot but why aren't you sitting with my sister?"

"Because we've disowned each other and I really don't want to talk about it so can we go sit?" Mai said shortly.

Zuko nodded and Jet grunted but the two boys led the way to the table. "I don't like this Sozin," Jet stage whispered to Zuko.

"Calm down, Mai's a good person we can trust her," Zuko shot back.

"It could be a trap. Your sister could have just sent her over here to investigate," Jet said.

"Will you stop being so paranoid! Mai's cool and she's sitting with us so chill out," Zuko said raising his voice just a little. He didn't know what Jet's problem was today but ever since his talk with Piandao Jet had been acting weird.

"You guys know I'm right here right?" Mai said making Zuko go scarlet. "Whatever, just don't stab me or anything," Jet said as they got to the table. He sat down next to Katara and immediately there was a smile on his face. The rest of the table was staring at Zuko and Mai. "Um hey guys! This is Mai, she's my friend and she's going to be sitting with us today okay?" The expressions softened but still had a tinge of wariness to them.

Haru smiled and scooted his chair over to make more room. Suki and Aang both said 'hey' and Katara gave a small wave as she ate her sandwich. Toph and Sokka though were staring with their mouths open showing the contents of their food. Mai sat down next to Zuko and across from Toph who had thankfully swallowed her food. "So just why is one of the terrible trio sitting here again?" the freshman girl asked as she took a bit out of her green apple.

Jet laughed and shot Zuko a look that said 'I told you so'. Katara and Suki both glared, Aang blushed and Zuko ran a hand over his face and sighed. It was going to be a long lunch period.

.:.:.:.:.:.

From across the room Azula laughed at the scene before her. "Oh I knew she wouldn't be able to make friends. I mean really without us she's nothing," Azula said joyfully. Ty Lee nodded sadly. She felt bad for her friend and to be quite honest, hanging around with just Azula wasn't a whole lot of fun.

Azula noticed the usually bubbly girl's sad reaction and said, "You're not turning into her now are you Ty Lee? Don't feel bad for her. She had everything and decided to give it away. She deserves to sit at the bottom of the food chain with ZuZu and his friends. Just look at them! Some of them are even going out with each other!" Azula gestured toward Jet, Katara, and Sokka and Suki. "It's kind of disgusting really. Who would go out with one of the Kuruks? They're from the slums!"

"Zuko looks happy." Ty Lee said simply as she nibbled at her lunch. "That he does Ty Lee. His new friends have taught him how to smile it seems. Well we can't have that. If only there were a way to get them all to turn on each other you know. It would just make my job so much easier." Then Azula saw Jet kiss Katara on the cheek and Sokka stand up just so he could walk over and shove Jet who shrugged it off. Azula smiled looking cat-like, "And I know just how to break up their happy little family."

* * *

Jet, Longshot and Smellerbee were all walking home since Jet's Datsun had died...again. "So Jet, Longshot says that you had to stay late after combat class. Did you get in trouble or something 'cause you usually don't get talked to in that class and Long Feng won't be happy if you bring home one more bad report from school. And if Long Feng beats up on you again and you leave again The Duke will be sad again and then he'll just be annoying and-"

"SMELLERBEE!" Jet shouted. The girl shut her mouth and Jet stood in front of her. He said with a smile, "I'm not in trouble with Piandao don't worry. He just wanted to talk about some new techniques with me. I'm not going anywhere. That was a one time thing okay? Don't worry so much."

"I know, things like that just put me on edge," Smellerbee said. Then a scream echoed from down in the alleyways.

Jet groaned, "Oh great what trouble has Toph gotten into now? Come on Longshot we better go bail her out. Bee you wait here."

"Oh come on! I'm not five, I'll just watch okay?" Jet shrugged, "Suit yourself."

They sprinted over to where they heard Toph scream only when the looked in the alley Toph was nowhere to be seen. Jin was.

Three black hooded figures had the girl cornered and one held a knife to her throat while the two others had her pinned to the wall behind her. Tears were dripping down her face. The figure holding the knife said, "Now do you wanna repeat what you just said to me and my friends? Something about how we shouldn't act like we run the place?"

"I'm sorry! Please just let me go," Jin pleaded. The men laughed, "Oh I'm afraid I can't do that sweetheart. Despite recent popular belief, we do run this town and those who try to disrupt that are going to be made as an example to the rest of the town just why that's how it is. We are smarter than you, stronger than you, faster, and definitely more powerful than you."

"Hey! Bastards! Yeah that's right I'm talking to you," Jet called out. The three men turned around and although Jet couldn't see their eyes he knew they were watching him. "Let her go. Me and my friend here will put up a more fun fight anyway. Besides I'm sure the rest of your "gang" won't be too impressed if you go back and brag about how you took out some defenseless schoolgirl who smack talked you."

"Hm or how bout you mind your own business Terra. I'm gonna carve this girl's face up nice and pretty," the one holding the knife said as he ran the blade across Jin's face who was trying to look brave now as she narrowed her eyes at the man.

Jet laughed, "Heh, yeah I don't think so." He looked around the alley. Years of class with Piandao, living in Long Feng's home and watching Burn Notice had taught him that anything if used right could be turned into a weapon. Right now he was looking for something simple, and he found it. Jet picked up a rock and lobbed it at the man's head. It made contact with the sound of a crack and a curse from the man.

"Now now, there's no need for swearing! There are children here," Jet said advancing toward the man now. Longshot following behind him steathily picked up a broken metal pipe. A voice that sounded a lot like Aang's was yelling in Jet's ear about any weapon was still a weapon and they had discussed earlier that they wanted this to be back to basics fighting if they were going to do this. But going into a fight where you knew your opponent had at least one weapon and you had nothing was just plain stupid. Jet would have to figure out a way to get the other guy to drop his knife and then he could improvise if it turned out he had anything else on him. This guy sounded like he wasn't that much older than Jet and Longshot, maybe a year or two, so hopefully that meant he was still too stupid to bring a gun with him to these things.

The man released his hold on Jin and turned his attention to Jet. "You really want to die dont'cha kid?"

"Who? Me? Oh no man, you've got it all wrong. It just makes me laugh when I see grown men laughing about how they can overtake someone who's obviously weaker than them." Jet knew that if they all made it out alive of this Jin would eventually make him pay for that. "Maybe it's because I'm just sick of you guys thinking you're so goddamn tough waving your guns and flashing your knives at people. If you guys were real men then you wouldn't have to use those," Jet said ending his sentence with a smart-assed smirk plastered on his face.

Surprisingly, his speech worked. The other man threw down his knife, which made Jin relax considerably, and got into a battle stance. "You know you Terra kids have gotten pretty damn mouthy lately. But hey, I'm curious, let's find out just who's made of all talk."

"Sounds like fun," Jet said and readied himself for an attack. The man came running at him and was going to swing a punch at Jet but the teen dodged him at the last minute and rolled to the side right into the man's shins causing him to fall on his face. The man landed with a thud and Jet quickly got back up on his feet. He tackled the man, who had started to get up again, and forced his face into the cold pavement earning a pained grunt from the Raider.

Jet smirked and leaned down to whisper in the man's ear, "Not so tough without your knife or your boys huh? You know the whole image of The Raiders is just shattering for me now. I really don't know how I'm going to deal with this." The man struggled and groaned from underneath Jet who just pushed his face harder into the ground. "Now who did you say was talking tough?" Jet asked but heard a thud and a yelp come from behind him.

One of the other Raiders had come to help out their leader but from what it looked like Smellerbee had jumped on the man's back and covered his eyes while Longshot kicked him in the ribs. Unfortunately while Jet was observing this he loosened his grip on the Raider who had gotten loose and now turned the tables on him. Jet was face down in the dirt and the man was doing the pressure point thing Piandao had used on him earlier that day and he felt his arms go weak.

The man laughed, "We'll see just how much smack you can talk after I'm done with you." He rolled put a hand over Jet's mouth and plugged his nose. Jet tried to get his legs free but his attempts were fruitless. He couldn't see what was going on with Longshot and Smellerbee but it must have been bad because he heard Longshot shouting at the top of his lungs, "Bee! GET OUT OF HERE! RUN! IT'LL BE OKAY JUST GO!"

Jet thought he heard Smellerbee argue but it was hard to hear over Longshot's yelling "GO!" over and over. Plus he was running out of air and fast. Jet forgot that you aren't supposed to struggle in a situation like this or like drowning. You just use up more energy and oxygen. He was cursing himself for being stupid as the edges around the man and scenery started to get blurry. Just as he was about to black out he saw something that looked like a shoe make contact with the man's head. There was a lot of groaning going on but Sokka's face appeared over his. The District boy looked hysterical as he tired pressing some points around Jet's neck. He was cursing under his breath about not listening to someone named Pakku when he had the chance. Whatever Sokka did thought it worked because Jet was regaining the feeling in his arms again.

"Dude! Calm down I'm fine," Jet laughed as he sat up. He looked at Sokka who looked like he was about to collapse and was confused as to why Sokka was here seeing as the Southern District wasn't exactly close but then he heard Suki.

"Aw come on little man don't you want to fight?" Yup definitely Suki.

The Raider didn't say a word but he snorted and lunged at Suki who of course dodged it. What she didn't see was the third Raider, who apparently got bored with watching Jin, sneak up and grab her from behind. Suki kicked and flailed about as Sokka and Jet sprang to their feet. Sokka ran at him trying to find a way to strike the man without hurting Suki but wasn't having a lot of success. Jet would have gone to help Sokka but the leader had gotten to his feet as well and was pretty pissed at the group of kids. He smashed hit fist into the back of Jet's skull making the teen fall to the pavement once again.

The leader grabbed Jet by the hair on his head, "You know someone outta teach you Terra kids some manners. Or at least how to keep your mouths shut. Not that I mind taking you guys out, it just makes my day more stressful." The man was about to slam Jet's head into the ground but in the absolute last second something glinting caught Jet's eye and he grabbed for it. It was the forgotten knife.

He quickly positioned the knife by his captor's wrist. "You break my head and you bleed to death," he growled.

"Oh I think I can live with that," the man whispered into Jet's ear. Jet wasted no time and bucked his head backward colliding his head into the man's skull. The man finally blacked out and let go and even though Jet's head hurt like a bitch right know he stood up and brandished the knife. "Hey Raiders! Looks like us Terra kids beat your asses. So unless anyone wants a new scar to add to the collection I'd reccomend letting my friends go and getting the hell off of Terra land."

The last two Raiders saw that it was now four against two, six against two if you wanted to count Smellerbee and Jin. The man holding Suki let go of her quickly but she landed with catlike grace but snarled at the man. The two men lifted up their leader and one of them turned back to look at the teens. "This ain't over!" he shouted and turned back around. "We'll be back to get you guys."

"Yeah? Well you can tell your leader that The Freedome Fighters run this town now and we are not scared!" Jet yelled. His words echoed in the alley making his head ring. He would definitely be needing some painkillers once he got home. Once the men were out of sight, Jet pivoted around to look at the sight in front of him. Suki was talking to Jin who kept on saying "Thank You!" over and over. Longshot and Smellerbee stood tall and Sokka only had one scratch on his face from the battle. They all wore the same proud smiles on their faces and Jet knew what they were all thinking. "We can do this." One thought entered his mind though making the ecstasy from winning go away, _'Piandao is gonna kill me when he finds out about this.'_

_

* * *

_

So what do we all think? I felt like writing some action because I don't think the story's had some physical action in a few chapters now. Hoped y'all liked it!

OOh and let me know what everybody else thought of the movie 'cause I want to know! Oh and happy Zutara Week to all you Zutarians! Maybe I'll actually be able to post something this year. =]


	16. Chapter 16

Wow I feel so under-accomplished! I've only cranked out like three chapters this summer! I go off to school in like a week and I'm hoping I can fit one more chapter in by next friday but we'll see. I feel bad considering I wrote pretty much like half the story last summer and barely any chapters this summer. I miss summer so much it went by way to fast.

Oh well I should stop ranting now. I own nothing!

* * *

Sounds of clanging metal echoed around the Combat room. Fencing practice had ended about twenty minutes ago but Jet and Mai had been paired up during the regular practice. This was something Piandao usually tried to prevent from happening considering they both thought the other was significantly inferior to their own skills but today the teacher was curious. The two had groaned about being paired up at first but when the idea that this could finally determine who the better fencer was made them both change their minds about it.

Neither one had won a match yet. Their first match with the plastic practice swords had lasted for the whole hour and a half of practice. Piandao had tried to convince them to call it quits seeing as he wanted to get home but Jet and Mai were both stubborn and wanted to settle this. Usually he never let his students use the real metal swords for liability reasons but in this case both students were highly trained and Piandao felt he didn't have to worry about them injuring themselves. The real swords were heavier than the practice one obviously so that made their teacher think that the extra weight would tire them out and they would give up. He was wrong. As mentioned earlier, it had been twenty minutes and they both could keep going.

The two teens danced around each other lunging and feigning repeatedly. Mai was breathing hard at one point and Jet noticing this said mockingly, "What's the matter Kwan? Can't take the heat anymore?"

"Not a chance Durden," Mai growled and advanced toward the boy. Jet leaped away at the last second and their dance began again until Piandao was ready to pull his hair out. "Enough!" he yelled and the two stopped. Briefly Piandao wondered why he hadn't thought to do that sooner, maybe it was because he didn't think it would actually work. "You both are extraordinary fencers but I think it's time we all call it a day seeing as you've been going on like this for nearly two hours now."

They both groaned, "Oh come on teach! I had her!"

Mai scoffed, "Oh yeah you were real close." Jet glared at her and was about to make a retort but Piandao cut him off, "None the less, I want to get home now and in order for me to do that you two need to not be here."

Jet rolled his eyes but smiled, "All right old man if you insist." Piandao shot him a glare but managed to smile back at the teen, "All right can I trust you two to lock up and not tear each other apart?"

Mai nodded and Jet said, "Aw damn Piandao you ruined the surprise. Kidding! We won't kill each other. You can go home."

Piandao gave the two a wary glance but started to walk through the door, "Okay, remember Jet there's no class tomorrow morning."

"I comprende teach don't worry," Jet said as he started to put his sword and fencing gear back in one of the closets. Mai followed his example in silence and the retreating footsteps of his teacher made Jet breathe a silent sigh of relief. Thankfully somehow Piandao had not heard about the Freedom Fighters little run in with the Raiders last night. Jet had been waiting all day for Piandao to rail on him for it. How his teacher would have found out about it Jet didn't know but teachers knew everything right?

Mai started to leave not saying a word to her opponent. Jet preferred it that way but then he thought about how she was kind of a part of the group so he should probably be a little bit welcoming. Before she could make it all the way out the door he called after her. "Hey! Kwa- I mean Mai!" She turned around with one eyebrow raised, "Yeah?" Jet ran a hand through his hair, "Um good match?" Damn this was gonna be hard. She gave him a questioning look, "Thanks." She turned around and disappeared without another word. Jet shrugged and went back to closing up the room.

While he was moving the swinging punching bags back into place he heard footsteps enter the room and felt his body tense. He knew Piandao wouldn't let him off that easy. "Look Piandao before you start yelling no one got hurt and-," Jet trailed off after he saw that the other person in the room was not Piandao. It was Azula Sozin. He clenched his fists and set his jaw, "What are you doing here? Thought you had a fatal allergy to anyone not from Ember."

Azula grinned at him, "Oh so that's why my brother is hanging around you because your funny. I mean you don't look very smart and you don't exactly strike me as Zuko's type but maybe he's keeping his options open."

"Is there something you wanted Sozin?" Jet barked while trying to stay as calm as possible. "Because honestly if you stay here much longer I don't think we'll be able to get rid of the stench you'll leave behind."

"Now that is a good comeback!" she said sarcastically, "The boys told me last night that you had a sharp tongue but I had to see for myself. You know it could get you into a lot of trouble though if you keep mouthing off to a Raider. I would think you would have known best about that considering your father spoke out of turn once and look where he ended up. I guess intelligence doesn't run in your DNA though."

"You have no damn right to talk about my family. You don't even know me," Jet snarled. He didn't notice how he was slowly inching towards Azula.

"Oh I know more than you think. I know your father, Jai Durden, was a pretty famous lawyer in the Terra area. So famous that a woman named Ursa Roku one day came to him asking him to help her out with a custody case. She was also planning on suing Sozin Corp. on false charges and knew that no respectable lawyer in Ember would take that on. So she turned to your father who stupidly accepted the case. Once my father got wind of this he knew he had to set Ursa right. Show her just who she was dealing with. My father planned on just murdering your mother, Mari, as a warning to your father. Imagine how excited the Raiders were to find your father at home too. It was literally killing two birds with one stone. Moral of the story is keep your mouth shut and stay in line if you want to live. You don't want to make the same stupid mistakes as your idiot of a father."

Jet who was overcome with anger at Azula for knowing as much as she did lunged at her. He grabbed her by the wrists and pushed her up against the wall behind her. With fury in his eyes he growled out, "No one is supposed to know about that."

Azula smirked, "When you're a Sozin you can know anything you want, own anything, and do anything you want." The without warning she crashed her lips onto Jet's. Jet didn't have time to react when he heard what sounded like a backpack fall to the ground with a dull thud. His head snapped to the side where he saw Katara standing in the doorway with eyes wide and jaw dropped. He had forgotten that she was going to meet him after her swim practice.

He dropped his hold on Azula immediately. "Kat! Kat it's not what it looks like I swear!."

Katara shook her head and with tears starting to form she picked up her bag and ran off. Jet started to go after her but turned back to Azula and glared at her with as much hate and loathing as he could pull together. He pointed a finger at her, "You planned this! Your family already ruined my life once. Did you really have to go and wreck the one good thing I had going?"

Azula walked past him and brushed her hand against his face only to have him jerk away from her touch. "You another thing we Sozins can do? Ruin who ever's life we want how ever many times we want. It's a beautiful thing."

"Get the fuck out of my sight," Jet snapped knowing that he would just have to hit her if Azula stood there much longer. Azula shrugged and walked out of the room, "Just remember what I said Jet Durden." And then she disappeared.

Once she was gone Jet grabbed his bag and sprinted out of the room and ran in the direction he thought he saw Katara run in. He didn't see anyone in the empty hallways but thought he heard crying and once he rounded the corner he found her sitting in a doorway crying. "Kat, look honestly it's not what it looked like. Azula said some stuff that torked me and-."

"And what? You were just so consumed by passion you had to make out with her?" Katara snapped while getting to her feet. "You know I should have listened to what all the other girls said about you. They all told me not to go for Jet Durden, that he was just a heartbreaker with a hidden agenda but did I listen? No, I thought you seriously cared about me but I guess I was just something to check off your list. I get it now, you're a risk taker and dating a girl from the Districts just wasn't badass enough anymore! You had to step it up a notch and go and make out with that, that, piece of Ember white trash!"

Jet took a step toward her and placed his hands on her shoulders only to have her flinch away. "It wasn't like that. I care about you Katara! Really I do!"

With tears running freely down her face Katara shook her head. "No, I don't think you do." She picked up her backpack and started to walk away. Jet wanted to go after her but felt that any attempt to would be fruitless. Katara was stubborn and headstrong he loved that about her but now he really wished she wasn't. Once she was out of his vision Jet started to storm out of the building walking through the practice gym where Suki was just finishing up talking to the rest of her volleyball teammates. She saw Jet stomping out and not minutes ago had watched Katara hurry through the gym too. Whatever had happened Suki could tell it wasn't good.

"Okay team, good practice! See you all tomorrow!" she shouted as she started to follow Jet. He shoved the doors leading to the parking lot with more force than was necessary and once outside he flung his bag off of him. "Hey Jet what happened? I saw Katara run out and she looked pretty upset. Is everything okay?" Suki asked extending an arm toward her friend but quickly recoiled when he pulled his arm back and punched his fist into the nearby brick wall of the school.

He shook his head and Suki with wide eyes saw that his knuckles were now bleeding. Jet didn't look at her but stared at the wall. "No, because once again the goddamn universe has decided that things were going too well in my life. Azula walked into the Combat Room and said some stuff that riled me up and then she basically sexually assaulted me. Katara saw and took it the wrong way and doesn't want to see me."

Suki stayed frozen in her spot but felt a greater hatred for Azula starting to rise in her. "Oh Jet. We'll turn this around don't worry. We'll get Katara to change her mind."

Jet shook his head, "No. She doesn't want to listen. She thinks I made out with Azula as some kind of checklist thing. Y'know I was happy with Katara. I didn't want anyone else when I was with her and of course a Sozin has to ruin any chance at happiness that I had."

Suki didn't know what to say to him. She had seen that Katara was different from the other girls Jet had been with and wondered briefly why Katara hadn't been able to see that. It was Azula after all and Jet probably hated people from Ember just as much as Azula hated people from the other territories. But then there was that shock value that Jet loved. Truth be told it wouldn't be completely surprising to her if Jet decided to mack on some girl from Ember just to say he did it. There was also the fact that Katara wasn't the kind that would jump to conclusions. Things weren't looking in favor of Jet's defense but he was her friend, her best friend so she would take his side and defend what he said seeing as she wasn't actually there to witness what really happened.

"Look, I can talk to her if you want. I'll try to convince her that you didn't put the moves on Azula," Suki said trying her best to sound calming.

Jet shook his head, "Don't bother. If after everything Katara and I have been through, after everything she knows about me she still can't trust me then maybe it's better this way."

"Don't be that way Jet. I bet we can fix this, she's probably just in shock and maybe tomorrow she'll be more willing to listen," Suki said.

Jet stared blankly ahead and Suki wasn't sure he had heard a word she had just said. It was getting late and her dad would be starting to worry if she didn't get home soon but Suki didn't want to leave Jet alone. She had never seen him this upset and so she didn't think it would be a good idea for him to go home just now. A few rounds with Long Feng would be the last thing Jet should be doing

She extended her arm and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hey, do you wanna come over to my place for dinner tonight?"

"No," he said in a monotone that could have rivaled Mai's, "Thanks but I just want to be alone right now. You should probably get home." Without waiting for a response Jet started walking away. Suki watched him go and tried her best not to worry the rest of the night about her friend.

* * *

Katara pushed past people as she tried to board the subway not caring if they shouted things at her about being rude. Once she got through the crowd of people she made her way to an open seat and stared out the window. 'How could he do this to me? And with Azula Sozin of all people!'

"Um, Katara? Are you okay?" She looked up to see who had spoken to her and was greeted with big gray eyes that were full of concern. Aang. She tried to force a smile for the boy. "Oh hey Aang. Yeah I'm fine, I mean no, I'm not really sure."

He took a seat next to her, "Do you want to talk about it?" Katara closed her eyes, there were too many thoughts running through her head at the moment but one thought in particular flashed through her mind. "I would but, no offense, the last time you rode the subway something bad happened. Shouldn't we be worried about someone seeing us?"

Aang smiled at her, "I don't think we have to worry about them. After all Jet thinks we can handle ourselves just fine and when it comes to that I think he knows what he's talking about."

Katara snorted and folded her arms. "Jet doesn't know as much as he thinks he does. He's really just an arrogant prick." Aang's eyes widened at her words, that he definitely hadn't seen coming. "Okay so I'm guessing you two aren't getting along," he said sounding chipper trying to make the situation a bit lighter.

Katara rolled her eyes, "Yeah we kind of broke up even thought technically I guess we were never together in the first place really." If Aang hadn't been shocked earlier he certainly was now. "Oh wow. What happened? You guys seemed so happy earlier today."

She took a deep breath, "We were supposed to meet after my swim practice and his fencing session. He usually meets me outside the pool complex but today he wasn't there. I wasn't too worried because he's stayed late sometimes to help Piandao lock up. I walked over to the Combat Room and see him pinning and lip locking Azula Sozin up against a wall! It was disgusting. I mean, I knew he had a reputation as a womanizer but I never thought that he would go for Azula she's from Ember for Christ's sake!"

After she had finished Aang sat there staring at her while trying to figure out what to say. He didn't have much experience in this department seeing as he had never had a girlfriend and most of his friends in his year weren't in relationships either. Still you didn't have to have experience to have some suspicion about the story. This was Jet they were talking about. The Jet who on a number of times went out of his way throughout the day trying to figure out ways on how to make the Ember underclassmen's lives miserable. The same Jet who was still warming up to Zuko being around. Aang thought there was a bit more to the story than what Katara said but she was his friend and he would believe her. She did have a point in saying that Jet liked the ladies a bit much.

"Well this might sound stupid but did you try talking to him about it? I mean maybe there's more to what you saw?" Aang said carefully as to not upset her. She still was. "I saw what I saw Aang!"

He threw his hands up, "Alright sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Katara immediately felt bad for snapping at him. He was just trying to help and be a good friend. "You don't have to apologize. I'm sorry I snapped at you I'm just a little frazzled right now that's all. Jet was kind of a big deal for me."

Aang gave her a soft smile, "Don't worry I get it. I know things suck right now but give it time and you'll get over him. I know that's kind of a generic answer but it's true."

Katara smiled back at him, "Thanks Aang. I know I'll get over him eventually. It's just going to be weird for awhile." He nodded in understanding. The subway screeched to a halt. "Well this is my stop. Thanks for listening to my girly angsty-ness," Katara said getting up from her spot. He smiled and shrugged in response, "Hey what are friends for?" She gave him a simple nod and as she turned around he said, "I will say thought that I think you were a big deal for Jet too."

She scoffed, "Yeah maybe. I'll see you tomorrow Aang." "Bye Katara," he replied. She got off and the subway started to make it's way toward Central. While it made its way there Aang pondered about Katara and Jet and how their problem might be fixable. Every solution he came up with always had one flaw. Jet and Katara were the most stubborn people in the world. Neither would go to the other and admit they were wrong. Whether Jet had kissed Azula or not if he had already tried to apologize and Katara didn't listen he wouldn't try again. Katara would also never admit she had jumped to conclusions without asking first. All of this led Aang to the conclusion that happiness was a choice and unfortunately some people just chose to be miserable unfortunately.

* * *

Azula walked into her red room with the proudest smile on her face. She hadn't had that much fun in a long time. Making Jet Durden and Katara Kuruk's lives miserable had been a welcome distraction from losing Mai as well. "_Ah Mai, she really doesn't know what she's missing," _Azula thought as she walked over to the bullitien board on one of her walls that was covered in pictures of the "Terrible Trio". In not one picture was Mai smiling and it had never bothered Azula before but now it was almost as if Mai was mocking her. _"How dare she not smile? She should feel lucky that I even considered being friends with her. The absolute nerve!" _

In raw anger Azula ripped every picture with Mai in it off of the board and brought them to her desk. She began to rip the photos in little pieces and as she ripped them she shouted, "I DON'T NEED YOU! I'VE NEVER NEEDED YOU YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!" Finally the pictures were shredded into small pieces but Azula still felt angry. She started to rummage in her desk until she found what she was looking for. Her lighter. She walked briskly across the room to pick up her trash can and brought it back to the desk. She dumped the shredded pictures into the can and was about to light it up until she saw the picture on her desk. It was her Mai and Ty Lee on their first day of first grade. She snatched the picture and without remorse lit it on fire. She tossed it into the fire and watched as the younger faces began to curl and burn.

As she watched she muttered, "I don't need you, I don't need you, I don't need you." She didn't notice the tears until she saw one fall to the floor. She rubbed violently at her eyes. When her mother was around she always had comforted her when she cried after Ursa left all that changed. Her father had slapped her for crying once. It was after Zuko had been in the hospital for his burn. Azula wanted to go see him but Ozai wouldn't take her and refused when Iroh offered to take her as well. Azula had cried and screamed until she was hoarse and that's when Ozai slapped her. He told her that crying was a sign of weakness and a disgrace. That Zuko didn't deserve tears because of the way he had acted. Ozai told her that Zuko was weak and that it would be his greatest disappointment if both his children turned out weak. After that Azula had cried only a few times. Zuko was there once and tried to comfort her but she threw a glass at him and after that he knew to give her her space. She started to distance herself from her brother after that. The other times she had been by herself but there was a time in seventh grade when Azula walked in on her father and one of his secretaries she had called Mai who had stayed on the phone with her all night. Azula tried to push that memory out of her mind now though, Mai had left her just like Ursa and Zuko had.

"I don't need anyone," she said to herself. "Especially not you," she said as the last of Mai's face was burned.

"It's normal to miss people you know," Zuko's voice came from the doorway. Azula turned and scowled at him, "What are you doing here? Father will kill you if he finds you here and don't expect me to stop him."

"You and I both know Dad won't be home until much later tonight but your concern for me is touching," he retorted. "I just came for some things I left here. I'll be gone before you know it. You should be careful not to set the house on fire by the way."

"Would you just leave already?" Azula snapped.

"Consider me gone," Zuko called over his shoulder and disappeared down the hallway. Azula slammed the door after him. She groaned in frustration and flopped down on her bed. She ignored the flames in the trash can, who would care if the house burned to the ground? Her father would just buy a new one. She rolled onto her side and stared at the picture on her nightstand. Her mother's eyes bored into her and Azula couldn't help but feel like she had disappointed somebody. She rolled over again, "I don't need anyone. I don't need anyone. I don't need anyone."

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Well that was angsty. I love writing Azula just 'cause she's so messed up. I'm kinda going for the whole misunderstood crazy girl thing. Well I'm thinking the next chapter's gonna have a lot of Jun/Lu Ten because I miss them so be looking forward to that! Reviews are greatly appreciated!


	17. Chapter 17

I own nothing! Not Avatar, and not Lady Gaga

Okay so just as a warning there's some heavy rated T going on. Just for suggestiveness really. Nothing too bad.

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It was almost ten o'clock and all was quiet at the Jasmine Dragon tea shop. Zuko had stealthily ducked out after the dinner rush saying he had to get something from Ozai's house and Iroh had left a couple hours ago to play pai sho with some friends. Jun sat on the counter top next to the cash registar swinging her feet while staring out the window. They had barely had any customers that night and closing time wasn't any more than ten minutes away. Lu Ten who was sweeping up the floor laughed under his breath when he caught sight of her. "You know staring out the window isn't going to make it be closing time any sooner right?"

Jun snapped out of it and shot him a death glare and said with a sneer, "Says the asshole who's been sweeping the same spot for almost ten minutes now." Her comment made Lu Ten stop sweeping but he just smiled back at her. "And look at it! It's practically glowing it's so clean!" He exclaimed and pointed at the spot in question. Jun rolled her eyes at him and continued to swing her legs. "I wanna go out," she whined. It had been so long since she had last partied and she thought partying with Lu Ten might be fun, "Can we go to a bar or something?" Lu Ten shook his head, "You know that's a bad idea. We could get caught and we'd both be in deep shit. You with Long Feng and the Raiders. Me with just my uncle and I could talk my way out it. Still not a good idea."

"I'm not saying we walk into freaking Dante's you moron! We could just go to Transcend they don't care who hangs out there," she countered. "They would if they saw a Sozin hanging out with a Terra girl especially since the whole town's freaking out about the intergration that Element Private's started. We're staying in," he said a little bit too harshly.

He saw Jun pout out of the corner of his eye as he swept. He did feel bad for her. Although she was definitely better off away from that bastard Long Feng's place he still couldn't help but feel that she was trapped here as well. Jun wasn't an introvert that's for sure and Lu Ten wanted more than anything to be able to take her out to clubs but as long as the Raiders existed that could never happen.

"You could lock up the register though. You know make yourself useful," Lu Ten suggested playfully.

"Ugh fine, I was having fun though," Jun grumbled as she jumped from her spot. She walked around behind the counter and turned on the radio that sat on one of the shelves on the wall behind her. Lady Gaga suddenly filled the room. _"Mum mum mum mah. Mum mum mum mah." _Jun heard Lu Ten groan and she smirked, he couldn't stand Lady Gaga. He said she scared him and was the main reason he had nightmares. Jun however didn't mind Lady Gaga, she wasn't her favorite but she didn't mind some of her songs and Poker Face happened to be one of her favorites. As the first verse began Jun sang along with it as she danced in place, totally forgetting the cash register.

"I wanna hold 'em like they do in Texas please. Fold 'em let him hit me raise it baby stay with me, I love it. Luck and intuition play the cards with spades to start. And after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart," she sang. Lu Ten had stopped sweeping and was now just watching her. "Oh oh oh, oh oh oh woah oh oh. I'll get him hot show him what I've got. Oh oh oh woah oh. I'll get him hot show him what I got," she sang and spun around on the last line. By now she had of course noticed that Lu Ten was watching her and she was enjoying every minute of it. She danced her way over to him and grabbed his hands, "Can't read my, can't read my, no he can't read my Poker face, she has got to love nobody. Can't read my, can't read my Poker face."

Lu Ten's hands drifted from her hands and moved down her sides and landed on her hips. He pulled her closer to him and she responded by snaking her arms around his neck. He leaned his forehead against hers and with a smile said, "P-p-p-poker face p-p-p-poker face!" That made Jun laugh a little. Feeling in the moment Lu Ten spun her around and pulled her hips to meet his. She gasped in surprise at his actions and that made him smile rather smugly. Jun couldn't have that so she stepped it up a notch. She began to grind against him and she leaned back into his chest. She felt him stiffen slightly but then relax as he began to mimick her motions. She was playing a game and he caught on quick. He leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Mum mum mum mah." It sent shivers down her spine and Jun could feel herself starting to lose it. His hands were starting to roam and for the first time ever Jun worried if things were going too fast.

She turned around to face him and saw his concerned expression. "What's wrong? Did I do something," He asked. Jun looked at him and saw something in his eyes she hadn't seen many times before. It wasn't lust, but concern mixed with something else. Normally Jun didn't fall for cheesy things like that so what the hell made Lu Ten Sozin any different? And that's when she realized what had happened to her, _"Oh shit. I like him way more than I should. Possibly the other "L" word is involved this time."_ But then Jun didn't really seem to care if she loved him. Well she did care but it didn't bother her and she kind of liked that it didn't bother her.

She moved her arms back around his neck, "Nothing's wrong. Keep dancing." He smiled and happily obliged. Only they danced face to face now and he seemed to be pushing her closer to a wall. Once her back was up against the wall he leaned in dangerously close to her face. The smile hadn't left his face and in an adorable way that only Lu Ten could do he whispered, "hi." "Hi," she whispered back at him. And then he closed the distance between their mouths. His lips were soft and he was gentle. Not anything like the guys Jun had been with before. She liked it.

However Jun was ready for some action tonight so she deepened by knotting her fingers in his hair and pulling his face if possible closer. She then pushed her hips against his being only a little worried that he might not like it and stop what they were doing. He didn't mind it by the sounds of the small moan he made. One of his hands rested on the small of her back while the other began to move up and down her side. It was a nice feeling but Jun wanted more and they had been taking it way too slow for weeks now. Just as she was about to break away and suggest they move upstairs the bell on the door tinkled and the door swung open.

They both separated as quickly as possible. Lu Ten cleared his throat and Jun moved some hair out of the way of her face only once she saw who had just walked in she was wishing she had left the hair where it was. Four men dressed in black hoods stood in the doorway. Raiders. Zhao was in front of them with an amused smirk on his face. "Well hello Lu Ten I hope we're not interrupting anything but the boys and I have been out all evening and we were just stopping by to get some drinks."

_"We are so fucked," _Jun thought. Zhao was only a few years older than her and Lu Ten and had been in her combat class at Element along with some other classes too. It would be a miracle if he didn't recognize her.

Lu Ten didn't smile and said in a cool even tone, "Sorry Zhao but we're closed." The underlying message of 'you're not welcome here,' could not have been more obvious. Zhao stepped closer to Lu Ten and looked him in the eyes, "Oh but according to your sign you don't close for another ten minutes. We'll have whatever alcohol you got." Zhao held up a twenty between his index and middle fingers. Lu Ten took the bill from him, "Fine, whatever we have though is in the basement." He turned and walked back over to Jun and said to her in a hushed tone, "Go in the basement there should be a bottle of Vodka somewhere down there. Bring it back up and then stay behind the counter okay?" Jun nodded and then disappeared down the stairs.

Lu Ten turned to face Zhao again who had an evil smirk on his face, "I always thought The Jasmine Dragon was a family business. Who's the new girl?" Lu Ten had the feeling Zhao knew exactly who the "new girl" was. He folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the counter, "Oh I don't think that matters. Now why are you really here Zhao? What does the all powerful Phoenix King Ozai have to say?"

Zhao laughed, "Always the smart one! Mr. Sozin is simply worried for your well being." Jun reappeared from the basement keeping her head down and handed the bottle to Lu Ten. Zhao watched her like a tiger stalking it's prey as she moved behind the counter.

"So how long has Shirshu been staying here?" he said and Jun stiffened. The same thought went through both Lu Ten and Jun's minds, _"Shit." _Lu Ten's eyes narrowed, "Who I have in my home is none of your or my uncle's business. Now I suggest you leave now before I exercise my right to refuse service."

Zhao barked out a laugh as he stood up from his spot, "Is that a threat?" The man didn't phase Lu Ten at all, "Possibly." Zhao now stood inches away from Lu Ten, "Maybe I was wrong," out of his back pocket Zhao pulled out a handgun, "Maybe you're not the smartest. You see Jun here," he gestured the gun toward her, "has caused a bit of trouble. Her master wasn't ready to let her go and wants her home and considering her master belongs to Mr. Sozin that makes her Sozin property. Just think of us as reposessors."

"She's not going back there. Last time I checked slavery was also illegal here," Lu Ten growled. "Or did you miss that lesson Zhao? Too busy trying to be someone's bitch so you could be Ozai's lapdog instead of listening in class?" That did not sit well with Zhao. He raised the gun and pointed it right between Lu Ten's eyes. Lu Ten didn't move a muscle meanwhile Jun was silently panicking.

Her eyes darted around her looking for something she could use as a weapon. All the knives were in the back and she had never seen Iroh keep a spare gun up at the register, she made a mental note to suggest that to him. Finally her eyes landed on the drink taps. She quickly reached for one and with a surge of adrenaline ripped it out. Whatever carbonated beverage that had been in there splattered against the floor as with a flick of her wrist Jun used the cord as a whip aimed at the gun in Zhao's hand. It didn't knock the gun out of his hand but the cord had instead wrapped around Zhao's wrist. With adrenaline still coursing through her Jun yanked the cord back and Zhao being so surprised by it fell to the ground and the gun fell to the floor. Lu Ten dove for it but the other Raiders already had their guns out and they were pointed two at him and two at Jun.

"Give it up Lu Ten. You make one move with that and the boys will blow Jun's pretty little brains all over the floor," Zhao snarled. Jun yanked the cord back again making Zhao's head collide with the base of the counter. One of the Raiders took that a as a signal to fire. Jun luckily heard the metallic click and dropped to the floor before the bullet reached her. Lu Ten fired the gun at the Raiders with amazing speed. He wasn't sure if he got all of them but one of the Raiders bent over to clutch his knee. Nothing life threatening but it would buy him and Jun some time.

Lu Ten scrambled behind the counter as the three uninjured men began to fire once again. Jun was staring at him wide eyed, "Well now what?" Lu Ten was thinking that himself, it would be a miracle if they got out of this alive. "Come on Louie, we know you're back there. We promise not to shoot you or your girlfriend if you come out now and calmly take a ride with me and my boys downtown," Zhao said trying to sound innocent.

"Yeah bullshit. Lu, we're not getting out of this one," Jun said frantically. Lu Ten shot her a stern glance, "Don't say that! I'll get you out Jun even if I have to burn the place down." And that's when Lu Ten remembered the bottle of Vodka in his hand. Quickly he scrambled for the zippo lighter he still kept on him at all times. When pulled it out of his pocket and uncapped the bottle Jun gasped. "Lu Ten! Are you crazy? You can't burn down the place! This is your dad's life plus where are you gonna live?"

Lu Ten didn't listen to her concerns and instead hastily stood up and emptied the contents of the bottle all over the wooden countertop and scattered some of it on the floorboards. Zhao and his men looked confused for a second until they saw the flame coming from the zippo. Lu Ten dropped the lighter before they could even say a word or make a move to stop him. In a second the whole counter was up in flames that began to travel quickly to the floor.

"What do we do Zhao?" one of the Raiders asked as they quickly stepped back from the flames that were creeping toward them. Zhao had an angry look on his face but after a second it turned into a smirk. "Retreat. Let them die. You just did our job for us Sozin! Hope you have fun in hell!" Zhao shouted and turned around and half sprinted out the door with his men following behind him.

Smoke had begun to form and it was making Jun gag. "Well good job Lu, they left except now we're gonna burn," she coughed out. Lu Ten didn't respond to her sarcasm. His eyes darted around looking for a possible exit. "We're going to have to take our chances and make a run for it!" he said standing up and extending a hand for her to take. For a second Jun hesitated but once she heard a ceiling tile give out and fall she grabbed his hand. Lu Ten put an arm of her making her duck and dragged her alongside as he sprinted for the door. They had almost made it when another piece of the ceiling fell only this time it was a support beam that fell right in front of them blocking their path to the door. Jun gave out a small shriek of surprise as Lu Ten looked quickly for another alternative. He found it.

"We're going to have to go through the window," he shouted. Jun's eyes got even wider, "You've fucking lost it haven't you!" Lu Ten placed his hands on her shoulders, "I don't know about you Jun but I want to live and through this and the window is the only way that's going to happen! Do you trust me?" Jun glanced from the window and back to Lu Ten's desperate face and nodded. He grabbed her by the hand, "Okay I'll go first and you follow okay?" Again she nodded.

Lu Ten took a deep breath as he stared at the window. This was going to hurt. He barreled at it bringing his arms up to shield his face. He felt his body go airborne and heard Jun scream but it sounded weird and muffled. As he crashed onto the concrete along with the broken glass he had the sickening feeling she wouldn't make it out. The pain didn't register immediately, he was running on adrenaline as he quickly pushed himself up off the ground. He turned around to find Jun jumping out. Had he not been there to catch her she would have fallen flat on her face causing her to probably fracture some facial structure and not to mention how cut up her face would have been from the glass.

Lu Ten pulled her close as he stepped backward off the curb and held onto her tightly. He watched as the building he called home went up in flames. The realization that it was gone just dawning on him. He thought he heard Jun trying to talk to him and he also wasn't sure if he was imagining the sound of squealing tires of a car pull up. He wondered briefly if it was just because he was in shock or if he had somehow damaged his hearing. He decided it was shock when his father's shocked face appeared in front of him.

"What happened? Are you both okay? Where is Zuko?" Iroh questioned. "I'm right here," Zuko said appearing out of the darkness. "I was getting something from my house."

"Zhao and some of his bastards showed up. Ozai knew Jun was staying here and they wanted to take us both back downtown. We refused, I'm sorry dad it was the only way out," Lu Ten said very calmly surprisingly. There was sorrow in Iroh's eyes but it did not outshine the look of relief, "I can rebuild a building. I can't get you two back." That made Jun smile.

"Now we need to get you two out of here. It's likely if the Raiders find out you're alive they'll strike again. You need to get out of town. Lu Ten you know where to go?" Iroh asked, Lu Ten nodded. "Good," Iroh dug around in his pants pocket and pulled out some keys which he tossed to Lu Ten. "Your motorcycle is too noticeable and it will raise suspicion if the Raiders find out it's gone. Take my car, I'll figure something out now go!" Iroh shouted.

While still hanging onto Jun Lu Ten made his way quickly to Iroh's car. He opened the passenger side door first and helped Jun in. After shutting the door and making sure it was secure he ran over to the driver's side and jumped in. He wasted no time after starting the car and peeled out leaving the Jasmine Dragon behind as he sped off toward the highway. After about five minutes of silence he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jun's hands were fidgiting, a habit she had picked up after quitting the cigarettes when she got stressed. Slowly he reached over and took one of her hands in his. "It's okay. They won't follow us," he said in a calm voice that seemed to have a little effect of Jun. It made her hands stop shaking anyway.

About an hour had passed and neither one spoke as they drove down the dark highway. Looking down at their hands Jun didn't notice until now how badly beat up Lu Ten had gotten. His hands were bloody from jumping through the window and so were his arms. They had done their job in protecting his face though. Not even a scratch. Still gripping the wheel had to be hurting him a little. "You're hands are all messed up. I could have driven you know. Give them the chance to heal," Jun said. Lu Ten smiled but kept his eyes on the road, "You don't know where we're going." "You could have told me the directions," she replied, "Or are you just that much of a masochist?"

Lu Ten laughed, "Jun it's just a few scratches. They barely even hurt. These don't make me a masochist." His light manner didn't sway Jun in the slightest, "There are other ways of being a masochist." Lu Ten smiled, "Oh really how?" "Liking someone you could never really be with. Keeping that person in your life when all they've done so far is mess it up. That's being a masochist," she said.

The smile dropped from Lu Ten's face and he pulled over to the side of the road. He turned his head toward her. "Jun I don't ever regret taking you in that night. I don't regret helping you get out of Long Feng's, hell I don't even regret tonight. I'm never going to regret you," he said sternly. Jun had learned that Lu Ten wasn't a guy that just told you pretty things so he could get in your pants. He said them because he meant them and that was something Jun didn't know how to respond to. Taking her silence as a sign that she wouldn't argue him Lu Ten got back on the highway and the two travelled in silence for about half hour. When they got off the highway Lu Ten turned onto a a two-lane bridge. The bridge went over a body of water and soon came to a small island where they exited.

The streets on the island were small and dark and the whole place seemed like it was deserted. It was making Jun a little nervous. "Um Lu? Where are we?" she asked as he turned left where the road snaked through a forest. "You've heard of my uncle's beach houses on Ember Island right?" Jun nodded " Well Ozai's not the only one in the Sozin family with a private getaway. My dad bought the island when he and my mom got married. He didn't tell anyone about it I don't think Zuko even knows," he continued.

They pulled up to a multi-level house with steps going down to a pier where the lake began. The house itself had lots of windows and looked sleek but still maintained a rustic look. Lu Ten cut the engine and turned to her, "Welcome to Jasmine Island." He stepped out of the car and ran around to her side to get the door for her. When he opened it Jun stayed right where she was staring out the windshield.

Lu Ten sighed quietly and leaned on the car door's frame, "Look Jun I know you're still shaken up but believe me no ones going to get us out here. We're safe." Jun hesitated for a second. People had been telling her stuff like that all her life. Social workers saying that Long Feng's was a perfectly normal place. Boys saying they'd be there for her. Her dad promising he'd come back and that this was his last adventure out. It didn't take a genius to tell that Jun had trust issues but when she looked at Lu Ten she couldn't help but trust his words.

She stepped out of the car and immediately Lu Ten put arm around her as they walked up the sidewalk that led to the front step. He only let go so he could unlock the door. He took her hand and led her inside and once they were in locked the door and switched on the light. The floorboards were a dark mahogany color to the left there was a step down into the living room where a large squishy black leather sectional couch encircled a glass coffee table. A large flatscreen television hung on the wall along with framed pictures of the Sozin family. Except for an older picture of the brothers when they were young Ozai was nowhere to be found here. Off in a corner there was a staircase that led to the upper half. Past the living room was a sunroom that had a view of the lake. Jun guessed on any other day it would look nice but now the body of water just seemed ominous. They seemed too out in the open for her liking

She heard the sound of a faucet turning on behind her and her head snapped around. Lu Ten was standing at the sink washing off his hands and arms. Jun hadn't noticed the kitchen when they walked in. A stainless steel fridge and granite counter-tops on the counters and island made Jun wonder how Iroh could have afforded this place. The Jasmine Dragon was a popular place sure but it didn't bring in the money to pay for a place like this. Pushing those thoughts out of her head Jun walked over to stand next Lu Ten who was scrubbing at his arms making them bleed more.

"You're not doing it right. You're being too rough," She said taking his arm and inspecting the scratches that crisscrossed up and down. "If I didn't know any better I'd swear you were emo," she said as she grabbed a towel laying on the counter and began patting at the scratches. "They're not too bad though. Do You have any rubbing alcohol here?" she asked. Lu Ten nodded, "There should be a first aid in the closet. It's right in front of where we walked in." Jun walked back to where he pointed and opened the door. On a shelf over some beach towels sure enough was a white ceramic bin labeled first aid in swirly letters that indicated Lu Ten's mom wrote it. Jun grabbed the bucket and walked back over to Lu Ten her boots making more noise than necessary on the hardwood floors.

She grabbed the bottle of rubbing alcohol and untwisted the cap. Leading Lu Ten's arms over the sink she said, "This might sting a bit." It did, Lu Ten flinched when she poured the bottle over the cuts. She then picked the towel back up and patted them dry. Examining his arms again she said, "You probably don't need bandaging unless you want it."

Lu Ten smiled, "Nah, I like the battle scars but thank you Dr. Jun." For the first time since Zhao showed up that evening Jun smiled, "After living at Long Feng's for awhile you learn some things."

"Did you ever think about being a doctor?" he asked as he lifted himself up to sit on the countertop. Jun shook her head, "I know how to clean up stuff probably about as good as any ER nurse but I don't want to have to." Lu Ten nodded, "I get that." Again they were silent for a bit until Lu Ten asked, "Why didn't you leave?"

"Long Feng's? Same reason Jet couldn't stay at the Jasmine Dragon. I had to look out for the others I've told you that," she answered. Lu Ten shook his head and then with a serious look said, "No not Long Feng's. I mean me, I mean the Jasmine Dragon. When you found out about my family you could have ran out. Anyone else would have so why didn't you?"

Jun shrugged as she thought back to that day. Sitting on the couch while Lu Ten and Iroh explained their story to her. "I don't know, I guess you just make me feel," she struggled with the word for a second, "Safe. I haven't felt that way since my dad died."

Lu Ten laughed but there was no humor to it, "Oh sure you feel safe around the guy who's family runs the murderous gang called the Raiders. I wouldn't call what we just escaped safe. You would have been safer if you had just ran from me. That's masochism Jun." He was getting himself worked up Jun could see from the way his knuckles turned white from gripping the counter. She stepped in front of him. It was her turn to calm him down. She placed her hands on his forearms and looked into his amber eyes. "Lu not to sound totally teen movie cheesy right now but you're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. It's like you said in the car. I will never regret you," She said and it seemed to work. Lu Ten sighed and closed his eyes as he rested his forehead against hers. "I know," he whispered.

Jun did only what felt right in that moment and leaned forward to place a soft kiss on his lips which he returned. He moved his arms around her waist and she placed hers around his neck. They were right where they left off at the Jasmine Dragon. It was when Jun's hands started to roam when Lu Ten stopped. "Jun I don't think that's a good idea," he said. "And why not?" she shot back, "You only live once and you're something I want to experience before I die which may be sooner than I thought after tonight."

"I told you, we're safe here you don't have to worry about that. You're in shock it wouldn't be right," he said and Jun was having a moment of deja vu. Especially when she realized he was wearing the red shirt he wore on the night he met her at Transcend. She looked at him and said, "Lu Ten I've done a lot of things that weren't right. Trust me when I say I'm not going to regret this."

He looked at her seriously and then suddenly crashed his lips back onto hers. His hands tangling in her hair as her hands roamed his chest. After a couple minutes they came up for air. Lu Ten panted but smiled. "Alright," was all he said. He took her by the hand and led her up the staircase where they found the master-bedroom. That night was the first night Jun felt truly secure in a long time. Especially when as they were falling asleep Lu Ten wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest. He then whispered something that Jun wasn't sure she heard right.

"I love you."

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Yay Jun and Lu Ten! Sorry but no lemony goodness here. I felt it would ruing the feel andI've had this chapter in mind since pretty much the beginning of the story and I hope it's as good as it sounded in my head.

Oh if my description of the house wasn't very good think of the house in When A Stranger Calls. That's mainly what I thought of when I was thinking this one up. I'm also thinking up a playlist for this story and if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

More drama to come so keep reading and leave a review!


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Ya i didn't like the last chapter, it was half assed so I re-wrote it and this one is way better.

I don't think I have to tell you why this is so late, you can probably guess. I really wish I had more time to write. I had **four months ** of summer vacation but was somehow still busy anyway. :/ I mad bro.

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"Holy shit dude what the hell happened?" Sokka shouted when Zuko walked into the combat room. Though the comment made Zuko smile a little, Katara still found it necessary to punch her brother on the arm.

"Way to be sensitive Sokka!"

"OW! You should talk! A simple withering stare would have been enough! Jeez Katara!" Sokka yelped. The siblings exchanged glares at each other.

Zuko smirked, "So I'm guessing you all know?"

Suki answered first, "It was kind of all over the news."

"Yeah, it's not every day the Raiders attack their own kind. Has that even happened before?" Toph asked looking at Aang who just shrugged.

"Did everyone make it out okay?" Jet asked from his usual corner where he was sitting with Longshot and Haru who looked equally concerned for Zuko. Zuko understanding Jet meant did Jun make it out okay, nodded in response. "No major injuries. Lu's a bit roughed up 'cause the idiot jumped through a window to get out, I guess he couldn't remember where the fire extinguisher was. He's just got a few scrapes though." Jet nodded assuming that this also meant Jun was alright or at least wasn't majorly injured.

"Any idea as to why they decided to target your uncle's place? I mean, it doesn't really make any sense," Aang asked. That seemed to be the question on everyone's mind seeing as the room fell silent. Zuko however was prepared for it, after having been asked it by multiple reporters last night he ought to have been.

"Someone at school let it leak that I've been hanging with you guys. It was a warning to me to stop it, that's not gonna happen though." Zuko said confidently.

"Dude, if you're family's in danger then maybe it'd be best," Haru said.

"When they burned down your house did your family stop making plans to export goods?" Zuko shot back but didn't expect the look of confusion on Haru's face.

"How did you know about my family's exports?"

Shit.

Zuko outed himself, and he had been doing so well.

Everyone was staring at him again with the same look, but no one wanted to come out and say it. That is until Katara spoke up. "That's because the Sozin's are in charge of the Raiders aren't they?" Her voice was hard and her eyes had narrowed as she stared at Zuko for a response.

Zuko felt an intense wave of guilt wash over him as he nodded silently. "Yeah, they are."

"Don't you mean we?" Sneers snapped.

"Knock it off Sneers!" Jet barked. "Zuko's home was just destroyed. Something we can all relate to for the most part right?"

"Why are you defending him?" Katara asked, he tone and gaze remained unaltered. It was the first time she had spoken to Jet since the Azula incident. "Because I knew," he replied almost nonchalantly as he met her gaze. That statement earned a few gasps.

"And you didn't tell us!" Sneers shouted. Longshot maintained his calm composure but his eyes did hold some confusion in them.

Jet sighed as he looked at his brothers, "I had to. Zuko and his uncle are good people. They took me in for a few days when I needed it remember? Do I look like a zombie to you? Not all the Sozins are the same."

"No they've just got you brainwashed!" Sneers yelled. The others were starting to come to Zuko's defense now. "Hey now Sneers watch it! Zuko did save Bee and Toph from the Boulder remember?" Suki replied.

"Not to mention he got kicked out by his old man, that's gotta mean something," Sokka piped up which earned him another glare from his sister.

"Which could all easily be lies! How do we know we can trust him?"

"Because Zuko's cousin and uncle have been looking after Jun since she ran away," Jet snapped. Again the room fell silent. Suki stifiled a gasp and Longshot's jaw dropped. "When I stayed with the Sozin's after Toph's party Jun was at their home. Zuko, Lu Ten and Iroh Sozin have shown me and her that they are trustworthy. Now what you have to ask yourself Sneers, and anyone else for that matter, is do you trust my judgment?" he finished.

Suki stepped next to Jet, "I do. I trust Zuko too, he's never given me a reason not to." Zuko nodded in appreciation.

"Ditto," Toph said and Aang nodded in agreement.

Sokka walked over to Suki's side and looked at the boys, "I don't like stuff being kept from me, but Zuko doesn't strike me as the dishonest type. If he didn't tell us there was a reason for it."

Zuko looked at Haru now, "I'm sorry Haru. For everything." Haru looked at Zuko for a bit before one corner of his mouth turned up, "Why are you apologizing? You didn't burn my house down did you?"

Zuko smirked, "No I didn't."

"Then we're cool man," Haru said and extended his fist so Zuko could fist bump it.

"Longshot, Sneers, what about you guys?" Jet asked.

Longshot stared at the both of them for a long time. He spent more time on Zuko that Jet. The quiet boy stared right into Zuko's eyes, as if he was searching for something. After awhile, he took a step towards them and gave a single nod meant for the both of them.

Sneers jaw dropped, "You can't be serious? He's from Ember!"

"You don't like it Sneers and you don't have to deal with it. Zuko's a part of this family, we've got his back."

Sneers shook his head, "Then I'm walking. Don't say I didn't warn you all." Sneers grabbed his bag and stormed out of the training room. That left just one more person, Katara.

"Well Kat, what do you say?" Jet asked.

"I don't like liars. They can't be trusted, keeping something from someone is still dishonest. I disagree with Suki, neither of you have given me any reason to trust you." Katara turned on her heel and walked out of the combat room.

"Katara get back here!" Sokka shouted and started to go after her. Jet put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Let her go, she's not ready yet."

Sokka brushed him off a bit rougher than was necessary, "Since when do you know my sister?"

Jet tensed and was about to step forward before Suki stepped in between the two, "Hey we are NOT doing this right now! You two can knock each other's lights out over Katara later, right now we gotta figure out what to tell Piandao about Sneers."

"Doesn't matter, this was Sneers' first day back anyway. We can just tell Piandao the truth," Jet said.

"Tell Piandao the truth about what?" Piandao said as he walked into the room. "Does it have anything to do with Katara storming down the hallway? And wasn't Sneers supposed to be back today?"

The students exchanged glances daring each other to be the one to break the news. "Well ya see sir, ol' Grimace didn't like the idea of being in a class with the Ember prince, no offense Sparky, and bailed. Sugar Queen's just freaking out about Casanova over here. In other words an ordinary day."

Piandao seemed to accept that response seeing as he shrugged and nodded. "I'm sorry to hear about Sneers, I thought I created a better more accepting environment here with you guys than that. We can't get emotional over it though. Sokka, you will let Katara know that she is not to skip anymore classes without written reason. That being said pair up and grab some gloves, we're gonna be boxing today."

Sokka tapped Jet on the shoulder, "I think you know what I'm gonna ask." Jet did, Sokka wanted to be partners. He wanted to do what a big brother had the right to do when an asshole hurts their kid sister. Beat him to a bloody pulp. Jet rolled his eyes "Lets get this over with Kuruk."

They strapped their gloves on and bumped knuckles, some of the other students had already started. Sokka made a right hook for Jet's face which the other boy dodged but only by a hair, Sokka had gotten better. Jet decided to be sneaky and start with a bolo punch toward Sokka's face. It worked, Sokka put his arms up in attempt to block Jet's move. Jet took this oppurtunity to use a a combination of punches aimed at Sokka's face, ignoring Piandao's reprimanding shouts. Sokka recovered by uppercutting into Jet's jaw, this threw him back a bit and Sokka charged forward swinging body punches aimed towards Jet's ribs, right where he knew Jet had a previous injury. Two was all that was needed to knock the wind out of Jet. He fell forward and began to cough violently. The other students looked on worriedly, their own matches forgotten. Piandao took Jet from the under the upper arms and hoisted him up. His expression was hard to read.

"You gonna be okay Durden?" Their teacher asked still stone-faced. Jet still breathing heavily nodded. "Alright, well why don't you sit down for a few minutes? Sokka good job, your technique is improving though next time maybe try not to punch out a lung," Piandao said.

"Thought that was the point," Sokka said staring as Jet tried to catch his breath. Suki shot Sokka a glare from behind his back.

"In an actual fight yes, right now however I just want you to outsmart your opponent. That doesn't necessarily mean maiming them. Something you all should be aware of," Piandao barked.

"Gotcha sir," Sokka replied.

"Good, now help Jet over to the side and grab him a water-bottle, I don't want him keeling over or anything." Sokka supported Jet and made their way over to the wall.

"We cool now?" Jet whispered to him.

"S'long as you stay away from my sister yeah," Sokka said and helped Jet sit down. He stared him right in the eyes and Jet looked right back.

"Don't worry, I will."

Sokka relaxed slightly, "Good," was all he said and he turned to get Jet his water bottle. Jet leaned his head back against the wall and gripped his side. The pain felt fresh again and he only hoped that Sokka hadn't ripped the wound open again. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Jet wouldn't sell us out right?" Sokka asked as he leaned next to Suki's locker.

She laughed as she picked out the books she would need for first and second hour, "Ha, that's funny." Sokka stared at her, he wasn't joking. "Oh my God you're actually serious?" Suki whispered.

"Well yeah, I mean no, I don't know. I'm all messed up. I don't think Zuko would out us, just doesn't fit him so I trust Jet when it comes to trusting Zuko, but he was found with Azula. That's real uncharacteristic of him, unless she was makin' a deal with him."

"Oh yeah and what would that be Sokka? Jet turn all of us in and he gets protection to do whatever he wants from now on? He's not dumb, he wouldn't trust a word Azula would say." Suki said.

Sokka threw his hands up, "Didn't mean to offend, well maybe a little. He did hurt my baby sister after all. It just doesn't make sense to me why he would do it still."

Suki didn't have much to say on that one either. Jet had a rep for being a bit of a man whore but she had never seen him act the way he did with Katara. Jet had told her that Azula had said some things to piss him off and he had pinned her to the wall and that's when she moved in on him. Not exactly unbelievable either, except Katara seemed to think it was. There was the issue. Jet was like Suki's brother, she was going to trust him if he said he didn't do anything.

"Sokka I'm not taking any sides in this, I've told you that already," Suki said while closing her locker door. She would have pointed out that Katara didn't really give Jet the chance to explain but that would lead into an argument that just wasn't necessary.

"But Suki look at what he's done? He made out with that Ember scum and probably has rabies now," Sokka lowered his voice when he spoke again, "plus he knew that Zuko's family was tied with the Raiders and didn't tell _any _of us. That's kind of shady. Maybe Katara's right. She did did make some sense today, after everything the Raiders have done to all of us, after everything we're fighting for, we should have known."

Suki's jaw dropped, "I can't believe the words that are coming out of your mouth Sokka. Zuko has never given us a reason not to trust him and neither has Jet. Zuko is not his father and as far as Jet goes there are two sides to every story."

Sokka wanted to argue with her but couldn't find a good enough response, "You know, I hate it when you do that. If I could just win one argument that would be enough for me, just one." He put his arm around her and Suki smiled, "Yeah good luck with that, I don't think it's going to happen."

"Well aren't we just full of ourself?" Sokka teased, "Maybe next class I'll fight you and deflate that ego a bit." He ruffled her hair a bit and Suki playfully swatted his hand away. "Don't get full of yourself. You only won one fight and you played dirty so it technically wasn't a fair fight." Sokka shrugged, "He got what was coming to him I would say." Suki rolled her eyes, "Now can we cut back on the testosterone before lunch?" "I'll try if he does." "Thank you, now we should get to class. I'll see you later okay?" "Sounds good," he gave her a kiss on the cheek before he walked off to his first class. Suki turned in the opposite direction where her first class was. Off in the distance a pair of amber eyes were narrowed at her and a smirk was plastered on the face that belonged to them. Suki narrowed her gray eyes at Azula as she walked past the girl. The harsh shoulder brush she gave the Sozin girl may or may not have been an accident. Azula kept her composure and glared as she watched the other girl walk down the hall.

* * *

Jun lay in bed, her dark hair fanned out all around her. The blankets were warm and the bed felt like a freaking cloud. She was convinced she hadn't slept that well since she was about six maybe. It might have helped that a pair of strong arms had been wrapped around her as she fell off to sleep. She definitely felt better than she had less than twenty four hours ago, there were some problems that only a man's arms could solve. But there was a problem. Those arms weren't there anymore Jun realized. She bolted up in bed pulling the sheets up around her. Her eyes darting all around the room. _'Goddammit, where's Lu Ten?'_

Jun all of a sudden tensed. _'What if the Raiders followed us here? No that doesn't make sense, they wouldn't have taken just Lu Ten. Unless they want to play with their food first. Not unlikely.' _Still that didn't seem to fit, Jun wasn't exactly a heavy sleeper due to years of living in Long Feng's house. She would have heard if any of the Raiders had come in. Right? After deciding that yes, the Raiders would have woken her up that brought up the question of where was Lu Ten. _'Don't freak out Jun, it's not the first time you've woken up alone,' _she thought. That was just it though, Lu Ten was supposed to be different, he was the kind of guy that was supposed to be there when you woke up. Jun looked around for some article of clothing she could throw on and the first thing she saw was Lu Ten's red dress shirt. She grabbed it and threw it on not bothering to button it up all the way. She found the skirt she had been wearing last night and threw that on too. It wasn't till just then did she realize that the clothes reeked of smoke. The memory of last night's events sent a chill up her spine but she shook off the feeling. It wouldn't help to be focusing on last night right now when she didn't know where Lu Ten was.

Deciding to not bother with shoes she quietly made her way downstairs. She heard a sizzling noise and froze for a second. Raiders almost always used fire while doing their dirty work. She thought for a minute about turning around and sneaking back out the window upstairs and making a break for it. She had year of experience from sneaking out of Long Feng's, she could escape without being noticed. But Lu Ten, what about him? He wouldn't leave her if he thought she was in danger. For the first time Jun felt the need to protect someone other than herself, other than her siblings at Long Feng's of course. She took a deep breath and braced herself as she finished walking down the stairs. What she saw truly surprised her.

Lu Ten was standing in front of the stove in a pair of pajama pants and a white tank top. He was poking at what looked like bacon. He turned to her and smiled, "Hey! You hungry?" Jun walked over and punched him in the arm. Lu Ten's smile disappeared and was replaced with confusion, "Ow! What did I do?"

Jun pointed a finger in his face and shouted, "Don't ever scare me like that again, do you hear me?"

"Scare you like what? i'm confused, I woke up and thought I'd make us breakfast but then I realized we didn't have any food so I went out and got some stuff. You seemed like you were comfortable where you were so I didn't want to wake you up," Lu Ten explained.

Jun's hands started fidgeting, "I woke up and you were gone. I thought that, that..." she trailed off. Lu Ten realized what she was trying to say. He pulled her in close. "I'm sorry, that was dumb. I should have woken you up."

"It's okay, I'm just kind of on edge what with what happened last night," she said. "I know, me too. You don't have to worry though, like I said, we're safe here. No one knows about this place but me and my dad," he responded. "Are you sure?" "I'm positive," he said with a smile, trying to reassure her. it seemed to work a little because he felt her body relax a little. "We good?" he asked, she nodded. "Okay, now I don't know about you but I'm starving. I made eggs too, I hope you don't mind scrambled," He said turning his attention back to the stove. "Scrambled's fine," Jun said sitting down on one of the barstools. She still seemed distant. It worried Lu Ten, Jun was tough but he was getting the feeling that maybe Jun was in shock. Should he take her to a hospital? No they'd have to explain what happened and that would definitely stress Jun out. He would just have to prove to her that they were safe.

Putting the last of the bacon onto a plate he walked over to her and offered her his hand. "Come on. We're going outside." Jun looked skeptical, "I don't think that's such a good idea Lu." "Trust me Jun," his amber eyes looked straight into her dark brown ones. That feeling of wanting to believe anything he said took over her and she took his hand. He led her through the living room and they exited the house through the sun-room. Outside Jun saw that there was a small dock, Lu Ten led her towards the very end of the dock and looked her in the eyes.

"Now close your eyes," he said. She looked at him skeptically. "Please Jun, do this for me." She let out a sigh but complied to his request, "Okay now what? You better not push me in the lake. It's freezing out here" He brought a finger up to her lips, "Shhh! Just listen for a minute." Jun did as he said and that when she realized how quiet her surroundings were. She didn't know if she found it comforting or peaceful yet. "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly, we're far away from the city. Far away from the Raiders. Open your eyes," She did so only to see him smirking. WHat he did next nearly gave Jun a heart attack, Lu Ten threw his head back and yelled as loud as he could into the still air. Birds in the nearby trees took flight, frightened by the sudden noise as Jun slapped a hand over his mouth. "Are you fucking insane?" she felt like she had been questioning his sanity a lot lately, more than usual anyway.

Lu Ten removed her hand from his face, "Look around you Jun, what do you see?" She took a quick glance of her surroundings just to appease him. "I don't see anything." "What was that?" "I don't see anything." "I'm sorry, what?" "NOTHING! I DON'T SEE A GOD DAMNED THING OUT HERE BESIDES US!" "Exactly," Lu Ten was smiling like the Cheshire Cat, only making Jun more pissed off. Not knowing what to say she did the only thing she could think of. She shoved Lu Ten off the pier. What she didn't expect was for him to grab onto her arm dragging her along with him. They plunged into the freezing cold water. Lu Ten didn't let go of his hold on her while they swam back to the surface. They coughed up water and Jun sent Lu Ten a death glare. "Oh would you relax? Do something for me okay?" "Can we go back inside if I do?" Jun snapped. Her tone did not affect Lu Ten at all. "Yes, now scream" "Excuse me?" "You heard what I said, scream. Just like I did." "You're crazy." "We've established that, now go on you're stalling."

Jun kept her eyes narrowed at him as she tread water. Knowing that she might as well now that she was freezing, and Lu Ten would probably just catch her if she tried to escape, Jun threw her head back and let out a shriek that echoed across the water. Other than some more disturbed birds nothing happened. It was that whole if a tree falls in the woods but if no ones around to hear it does it make a sound? thing. No one was around, no one had heard them. They were alone. Lu Ten looked at her with that cocky-assed smirk of his that made Jun either want to punch him or kiss him. She settled for splashing some of the cold water in his face, making his raven hair stick to his face. "Yeah yeah smart ass, I'm going inside and eating some breakfast, you can stay out here and catch pneumonia if you want or you can join me if you behave yourself." Lu Ten swam closer to her and whispered, "Yes ma'am" and gave her a soft peck on the lips. Jun couldn't help but smile, even though she didn't necessarily want to. Though she did feel better that it seemed like the Raiders hadn't followed them, the idea of being completely wasn't exactly comforting. She decided to try to forget the feeling for now and enjoy what time she and Lu would have together here.

* * *

There that's better! Review please!

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	19. Chapter 19

I changed the last chapter so go back and read that one before you read this one!

* * *

A loud thump sounded as Shay, Element's best server pelted the ball over the net. Suki smirked, scrimmage during practice was taken just as seriously as a real game on this team. One of the girls on her side bumped the ball but it didn't have enough force to volley back over the other side. Perfect.

"Leela! Set me up!" Suki shouted to one of her teammates. The other girl only had time to give a single nod before she jogged backward a bit in order to catch the ball. Suki sprinted towards her and sprang into the air. The loud smacking sound of her hand against the ball was gratifying enough, it made the girls on the other side scatter. The ball dropped to the floor and Suki's side won the scrimmage. The girls pumped their fists in the air and victorious whoops were made.

"Alright girls huddle up!" Suki shouted. As team captain she made most of the calls during practices, "That was a good practice, way to be on our toes! Good serve Shay, though I will say we do have to do a better job of calling our shots and respecting each other's area. We can't be running into each other on the court when we face those brats from the Yu Yan High next week. We've got the strength we just need to work on organization a bit." A few breathy laughs were had around the circle of girls. "Alright, take down the nets and be ready for tomorrow!"

The group of girls dispersed and Suki stared at them. They had really come a long way since she started as a freshman. Leela was terrified of anything that flew too close back then and Shay's arm wasn't nearly as good as it was now. She was proud of them. Her thoughts were broken though when she saw a stray volleyball in the corner of the room. As she was walking over to grab it she heard Shay shout.

"Back off Sozin! Your season's over! We have every right to be here!"

Azula stood off near the combat room with Ty Lee probably waiting for Mai to get out of fencing practice. Suki rolled her eyes, 'Here we go.'

"That's debatable," Azula said with a smirk on her face.

Shay crossed her arms, "I'm game for a good argument."

Just as Azula was about to open her mouth Suki shouted from across the room, "Sozin! Do you need something?"

Azula pivoted to face Suki's direction. "Yes in fact I need you and your team to vacate for the rest of the week. The soccer team needs to use the space for practice." A likely story.

Suki smirked right back at the girl, "Soccer season's over Sozin. Now I suggest you just sit there and quit harassing my team before things get bad."

"Ha, oh please. You know threats aren't your strong point Suki," Azula laughed as she turned on her heel. She was walking towards the exit as she called over her shoulder, "They weren't your mother's either from what I've heard, but I guess you wouldn't know."

Suki did not regret what she did next. She over-handed the ball in her hand and aimed it for the back of Azula's head. The hit connected sending Azula face first into the ground. Laughter erupted and echoed off of the walls. Suki walked over to pick up the ball lying next to Azula who hadn't gotten up off of the ground yet. Suki whispered in her ear.

"I know about your family secret, you ever talk about my mom again and you can bet that it will be all over the news. Joo Dee lives in my neighborhood after all. That a better threat?" Azula just stared open mouthed as Suki stood back up. "Oh and stay away from Jet while you're at it," she said as she walked over to the other girls who were still laughing and pointing.

Ty Lee went to help Azula up. The black haired girl shoved away the other girl's helping hands. Azula stood up and stared at Suki's retreating form. "Bad move Kyoshi, now you've made me angry."

* * *

Zuko was waiting out in the parking lot for his uncle to come get him which at this rate it looked like the old man had forgotten. Again. He sighed and started to walk in the direction of the subway when he heard the doors to the school slam behind him. Katara. She was still seething from this morning too from the looks of it. Instead of being smart and just walking towards the subway he decided to try talking to her.

"Um hey Katara wait up," He said as he jogged after her. She did stop but she did not look happy to see the Sozin boy at all.

"What do you want Zuko?" she snapped, clearly annoyed at his mere presence.

"Look, I just want to talk. You know about this morning," he said.

"I don't see what there is to talk about. You kept a big secret from us and now I don't trust you. Pretty simple if you ask me," she snapped again. She began to turn away from him but he caught her arm.

"I know I should have told you guys sooner. I'm sorry for that. I'm not out to get any of you though," Zuko said.

Katara shook her head, "Sorry doesn't take back what your family has done. Sorry does not make the pain go away. Sorry does not bring my mother back!" She ripped her hand away from his grasp and stared waiting for his retort.

Zuko looked around, the parking lot was deserted, and replied with a whisper, "You are not the only one who lost a mother because of the Raiders." Katara's face remained unchanged but she did not make any move to leave so Zuko took that as a signal to explain himself. He sighed, "A long time ago, after my dad ordered the hit on the Southern District, my mom found out about the Raiders. I think she had some idea but something about the Southern District made her realize the truth. They fought for a long time that night, it's how Azula and I discovered that our family was in charge of the Raiders. My mom told my dad that he had to put a stop to it, had to get rid of the Raiders and confess to the police our families crimes. This meant that he and most likely my grandfather Azulon would go to prison for a long time. That didn't sit well with my father, he refused of course. My mom said she was leaving then, and that she was taking me and Azula with her. He pulled a gun on her, he said that we wouldn't get off the yard without being slaughtered. He did however give her a choice, she could stay and keep her mouth shut or leave but without me and Azula. If she breathed a word of it to anyone, bad things would happen to me and Azula. Probably only me though.

She left, but she had seen me and Azula hiding up on the stairs and shouted from the door that she would be back for us. She did try, she tried very hard, but my father gets what he wants and he didn't want us with her so he fabricated some story of my mother being unfit to take care of us and was granted full custody as well as a restraining order against her. I haven't seen her since that day in court."

Katara's eyes had softened a bit. "How do I know you're not lying?"

Zuko pointed to the scar on his face, "My father gave me this when I told him I wanted to live with my mom. I was thrown out of the house for speaking up against him when the Raiders set fire to Haru's home. You can choose to believe me or not."

Katara's jaw dropped, "I'm so sorry Zuko, I had no idea" She reached out to touch the scar on his face. He flinched a little, Zuko didn't like people touching his scar but in this case he felt it might help Katara trust him.

"That man is a monster," she said referring to his father.

"Yes he is, what's worse is that he's brainwashed Azula into believing him. He needs to be stopped," Zuko replied.

"Why don't you just tell the police?" Katara asked.

"Katara, my uncle's home and business was set on fire last night just because we had someone from Terra living there, my father works in twisted ways, he won't come for me if I go to the police. He'll go for my uncle or Lu Ten or even you guys."

Katara shrugged, agreeing with what he said. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. It was stupid."

Zuko laughed, "I'd react the same way don't worry." Then she did something he wasn't expecting. She hugged him. Zuko stood there awkwardly for a minute and then patted her on the back. She pulled back and smiled at him. "So are we okay now?" he asked.

Katara gave a breathy laugh, "Yeah I think we're good."

He was about to respond when the doors behind them slammed yet again. Suki was basically sprinting out of the building.

"Woah, Suki! What did my idiot brother do now?" Katara asked.

Suki stopped abruptly when she heard her name, apparently she hadn't seen the two as she was storming out. "What? Oh no Sokka didn't do anything. YOUR idiot sister however needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut!" she said pointing a finger at Zuko.

"You say this as if it's new information to me," Zuko said plainly. "What did she do now?" he asked.

Suki seemed to have regained some of her composure. "She just said something about my mom that kinda pissed me off."

"What did she say?" Katara asked.

Suki took a deep breath, "She said I wasn't good at making threats, and neither was my mom from what she's heard."

Zuko walked up to Suki and placed his hands on her shoulders. He looked straight into her gray eyes and said, "Look, Azula doesn't really know half the shit she talks about. Azula _always_ lies, okay? She probably just said it to shake you up a bit."

"Well it worked," Suki said reluctantly.

"I know, she's good at that. Like I said though, Azula always lies. You just have to remind yourself of that." He replied.

Suki nodded, "Yeah, thanks." Then she hugged him, it was the second time that day Zuko felt awkward. Katara giggled a little at the sight.

Suki pulled away, "Well I have to get going I told my dad I would run some errands for him."

"Yeah I better get home before Sokka and Gran freak out," Katara said.

"'Kay, see you later," Zuko said. The girls waved as they walked off in different directions. As he walked off towards the subway, he couldn't help but worry, it felt as if someone had been watching.

* * *

Suki was walking out of the grocery store with the rest of the weeks groceries as well as her homework in her arms. It had gotten dark outside and she had a long walk home. She had to go to the store in the central part of Terra since the corner store the Raiders had burned down wasn't rebuilt yet. She somehow was able to flip her hood up as she began the long trek back home.

She turned off of Granite Avenue and walked down Shale Street, it was a busy part of town and her dad always told her to take it just in case. The Dai Lee were less likely to try anything in a busy area. She passed bicyclists and skaters on the sidewalk as the cars drove by on the street. A rumble sounded in the sky and Suki felt a raindrop land on her nose.

'Great, it would start when i still have eight blocks to go,' she groaned inwardly as the rain began to fall. She contemplated calling her dad but then remembered that he was pulling a late night tonight, Jet had to work a shift tonight as well so he wasn't available either. Maybe Sokka could come get her. She shook her head, she didn't want him getting caught, it was dark out so the Raiders were definitely going to be patrolling the territories. She sighed and kept walking. The farther she went the less busy it became, eventually she was the only one out in the street.

She was walking in a downpour now and highly regretting her decision to go with paper instead of plastic seeing as the bag holding her groceries was now soaked through. She wasn't surprised when it finally split and it's contents spilled on the sidewalk.

"Perfect," she whispered to herself. She knelt down to pick up the items off the ground. It was then that she heard the footsteps. Telling herself it was probably nothing she continued to pick up her groceries, however her body tensed as they got louder. Finally she turned and just in time. The footsteps belonged to a tall hooded figure who had his arm raised as if to strike her over the head.

A Raider.

As he brought his arm down, Suki raised hers and caught his blow. She quickly stood up and thrust her knee up into his abdomen. Hearing a satisfying gasp from him Suki let go of her hold. She turned around in an attempt to run only to run into someone else, apparently this Raider had brought friends.

Suki smirked, "You know if you guys wanted to play all you had to do was ask." She didn't give him time to respond before she delivered a roundhouse kick to his face. Someone decided to be sneaky and punch her while her back was turned. Suki caught her balance and came face to face with none other than Azula.

"Now now Suki, play nice. We wouldn't want anyone getting hurt now would we," Azula drawled.

"That depends," Suki snapped, "What are you doing here anyway Azula? This isn't your turf."

Azula paced around the other girl, "Oh I think you and I both know that the rules don't exactly apply to me." Azula grinned like the Cheshire cat, but more like the demented one from American McGee's Alice, not the disney one. Her two Raider minions went to stand behind her. Suki was definitely outnumbered so she had to think fast.

"You want a fight Azula fine, you've got one. You and me, ditch your dogs." Suki growled.

Azula laughed, "That won't be necessary." That's when Suki went limp. "Ty Lee have I ever told you how useful that chi-blocking is?"

The cheerleader came into Suki's view, she didn't look happy at all. "Azula I don't feel right about this. She really didn't do anything too bad."

"Did I ask your opinion," Azula barked. Ty Lee shook her head. "That's what I thought. Now," She looked down at Suki, "We can't have you awake for this next part, wouldn't want you screaming or telling your friends where to find you now." Azula raised her foot and that was the last thing Suki saw.

* * *

Okay I know this is LONG overdue and I am so so sorry for that but here it is! Things are going to move a bit more quickly from this point on I think but review so I know what you guys think!


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